Cloak and Dagger
by Zardeon
Summary: Naruto starts living with one of Konoha's top assassins and gets training early on. Capable Naruto, Pairing will be Naruto/Fū and OC(Akira)/Anko. Rated for violence, language and possible sexual situations later. AU and some OOC.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Soooo... This is the first time I attempt to write anything other than school assignments, so it will probably suck. Anyway! This fic will be probably be AU and OOC at quite a few places and will focus on stealth (Although, this is Naruto, so he will have quite a few heavy hitting ability's as well) He will not be godlike, but he will be strong, most likely stronger than Sasuke was early on. There will be some changes to a few characters and events since I believe Kishimoto just kept changing things on the way "Cough" Itachi, Sharingan, Kage power level "Cough"

For reviews I'd be grateful if you didn't just make a stupid comment like "This fic suck, You're an idiot, learn freaking English" or stuff like that, feel free to correct my spelling/grammar, I'm not a native English speaker and I know it won't be perfect, but be sure to tell me what's wrong with either the fic in general or my spelling/grammar so I can actually fix it, if you do, well, Thanks!

**I do not own Naruto**

**Karma's a Bitch**

Konohagakure no sato, the village hidden amongst the leaves. It is the strongest and amongst the most peaceful of the five great villages. Well, it should be at least.

"Get back here! You fucking brat!"

'Shit! They found me again!' A blonde haired boy with whisker marks, in an orange jumpsuit, around 8 years old burst out of his hiding place and took off as fast his short legs could carry him, running away from a small group of clearly drunk ninjas. Why was he running away? Because the boy's name is Uzumaki Naruto, the pariah of Konoha, and today was October 10, his birthday.

"Stop running, you little bastard!" A random man in the crowd yelled.

'Yeah right! It doesn't take a genius to figure out that's a bad idea, dattebayo!' Naruto thought, while he tried to spot one of the ANBU that usually stop things before anything happens, but for some reason, only those that just ignore him seemed to be on patrol this particular evening.

'You got to be shitting me! Where the hell is Dog? Cat? Tenzou? Or Weasel, even though his eyes scare the shit out of me!' He thought. No matter where he looked he just couldn't find any of them. He was even starting to suspect that the ANBU he did see was helping the group pursuing him. He changed direction and headed towards the training areas. 'I can lose them in one of the forests, at least I hope so.'

* * *

**The border to Fire Country**

* * *

A figure was jumping between the trees at high speed. It was wrapped in a large cloak with a hood, leaving only the figures feet and eyes visible, in various shades of green, brown and red, the cloak seemed to meld with the shadows on the branches and made it hard to focus on it.

"I'll kill them. I'll fucking tear their arms off and beat them to death with them! A simple A Rank my ass! I should send them to Ibiki down at T&I to fucking play with! The damn idiots shouldn't be allowed to play with shit they don't understand!" The figure said with a slightly distorted feminine voice, and as she reached an area that was clear of shadows you could see the blood stains covering her cloak.

"They better pay the fuck up or I really WILL kill them! Gah!" The anger and frustration was almost visible, but the voice also sounded tired. The woman let out a deep sigh. 'I better speed up, I want to sleep in my own bed tonight. I should be able to reach Konoha in a few hours.'

With that thought the figure took off at an increased speed and soon disappeared in a blur.

* * *

**Back in Konoha a few hours later**

* * *

'Man those guys where persistent, I almost didn't manage to lose them…' Naruto thought with a sigh as he carefully made his way towards his apartment, making sure he stayed out of sight from the rest of the village.

'What the hell is going on today?! Usually ANBU or Jiji stop them before anything actually happens, why didn't that happen today?!' He thought as he stealthily made his way home. How the hell he managed to be stealthy with a bright orange jumpsuit is a bigger mystery than the meaning of life. He kept asking himself what was different today compared to other days as he made his way up the stairs to his apartment. When he reached his floor he suddenly choked up. The door to his apartment was broken down and there was graffiti on the outside.

'Oh come on! Why can't anything good happen today!' He thought, fighting down the urge to scream so he wouldn't attract attention. He stepped through the door and took in the state the place was in. Everything was smashed. Posters of ramen had been torn of the walls and shredded, the few potted plants he had found thrown out and nursed back to health had been thrown on the floor and stomped on, his photo frames had been smashed and the pictures torn, the chairs and table was nothing but firewood and there was graffiti with insults on several of the walls. His bedroom had feathers all over the place and the bed seemed to have been cut up with a kunai or something and his clothes was ripped. The boy stood there and took in what used to be his apartment with a blank face and slightly wet eyes.

'Why the hell would they do this?! Why can't they just stick to ignoring me, they had to trash my fucking place aswell?!' He thought as he fought back the tears that threatened to fall, if just to keep whoever did this from getting that piece of satisfaction.

"Happy, Fucking, Birthday." He muttered with a strained voice while he clenched his fists.

* * *

**Outside the mission building**

* * *

The woman from before, still wearing the same cloak, walked out of the building muttering with an angry and tired voice.

"The fuckers actually thought they could try to talk themselves out of upping the rank, as if they weren't the ones who lowered it in the first place!" She snapped at no one in particular. It seemed now that someone had tried to make a favor for someone and changed the mission from a group mission to a solo mission to make it cheaper. However what would have been an average A rank group mission was a quite hard S rank solo, and it had almost gotten her killed.

"Fuck it. I managed to get my money in the end, and now I'm going to go home and sleep for a Month!" She said while making a Ram seal and preparing to Shunshin home. Disappearing in a swirl of water she arrived, at the completely wrong location.

"Oh come on! I'm too tired to even manage to do a Shunshin correctly?!" She exclaimed while putting her head in her palm. With a sigh she started looking around to see where she actually ended up. She was standing on a roof overlooking one of the poorer areas of Konoha, as she prepared to walk home instead, she noticed a blonde haired boy entering an apartment with a broken down door.

"Great. Just, great. I should just ignore it." She said with another sigh, as she jumped down and slowly and silently made her way towards the apartment. When she reached the top of the stairs she heard a low voice say "Happy, Fucking, Birthday".

Leaning against the doorframe she looked around and took in the trashed rooms and the blonde standing in the middle of the room while clenching his fists, the slight trembling of his shoulders told her he was barely holding back his tears.

Now that she was up close she could easily recognize the boy and probably guess what had happened as well.

'I guess the bastards jumped at the chance to do this to him, as if almost getting their ninjas killed weren't enough, they had to make the brats life even harder than it is as well.' She thought while she kept studying the room. After what seemed to be a short internal discussion she let out a deep sigh.

Jumping at the noise Naruto jumped and turned around in a flash and faced the cloaked figure in the doorframe.

'What the hell, how did he get there, I couldn't hear anything! Is he one of the group from earlier?!' He thought frantically. "Who the hell are you, and what the hell are you doing here, dattebayo?! He loudly said.

The woman just looked at him, she could see the surprise, anger, and small amount of fear in his eyes as he tried to figure out why she was there. She looked over the apartment again and sighed.

"Do you have somewhere else to stay?" She asked in a tired voice.

Naruto blinked, barely noticing that the voice was female, while he went over the question in his head. Before letting out the intelligent reply of "Huh?" While tilting his head a bit.

"I asked, do you have somewhere else to stay?" She said with a small groan as she rubbed her temples, the fatigue of the recent events giving her a slight head ache. "Someone you know that's willing to let you stay until your apartment is fixed?"

Naruto blinked again before narrowing his eyes at her. "Why do you want to know? What does it have to do with you?" He asked suspiciously.

She looked him in the eyes while removed her fingers from her temples. Studying the way he held himself after the question she could easily see the answer.

"That's a no then. I asked because I got a few spare rooms in my home so I could offer you a bed until you can get your place fixed up." She said.

The surprise was evident in Narutos face after the answer before he narrowed his eyes in suspicion again.

"Why would you let me stay at your place? I don't even know you!" He said. Usually he was a lot more trusting, but after what happened today, let's just say he was not in the mood to trust a stranger.

She looked at him for a short while before saying "Would you like the truth, or a lie?"

That was an unexpected answer, however he recovered quickly enough.

"….. I want both, and start with the lie." Experience said he'd probably prefer that one.

She thought it over a short while before shrugging and saying "Okay. I'm offering you to stay at my place because it's the right thing to do."

'So she wants something, but what? It's not like I got something to give her.' Naruto thought before saying "And the truth?"

She started rubbing her temples again before she started explaining.

"3 days ago I got sent on a solo A rank mission. It was supposed to be a rather easy mission, go in, kill the leader, steal some information and get the fuck out of there. However, the fucking Civilian Council had changed the mission from a group mission to a solo mission so the client would owe them a favor and the client would save some money. This led to me having to fight the leader, who was a missing nin, along with his 2 bodyguards, who was also missing nins, all A ranked ninjas. This led to me almost getting killed. It SHOULD have gotten me killed. I must have fucked Lady Luck or something for me to actually manage to kill them even when I was unprepared. Hell, I even managed to complete the damn thing as well. And then when I got back to Konoha, pissed off and tired as hell I actually manage to get it into their greedy little brains that the mission really was an S rank solo mission, and that I should be paid for that, as is stated in the law. Hell that was harder to pull off that the actual mission."

She stopped rubbing her temples and looked into the boy's eyes before continuing.

"So after all this, I am not going to risk there being such a thing as Karma, because if there is such a thing, it's telling me to pay up and help you because my rent is overdue." She finished, and stood waiting for the boy's answer.

Naruto just stood there for a while thinking, he also noticed that there seemed to be BLOOD on her cloak, and quite a bit of it. 'Can I trust her? I don't even know her... Wait... Now I remember! She helped me that time I ran into a stray dog after I got thrown out of the orphanage! How the hell did I forget her cloak? It's kinda hard to miss… But then again I was kinda scared, and it was quite a while ago… And I got to stop rambling.' He looked around once more before sighing.

"Well, it's not like there's a point in staying here." He said bitterly. "I'm still not sure why Jiji didn't stop them though, or had one of his ANBU stop them…" He said, a bit sad, and very afraid that something might have happened to the old man, or maybe, that he had grown tired of him.

The woman looked at the boy, and then swept her eyes around the room. She noticed a note on the floor. She walked in and picked it up, after looking at it she handed it to Naruto. As he looked at it he saw it said 'To Naruto-kun'.

He quickly unfolded the note and read it.

'Naruto-kun, I'm sorry I couldn't speak to you before I left but you were not home when I came by, so I left you this note instead. Unfortunately I have to attend a meeting with the Fire Daimyo and several other minor lords. The meeting lasts 2 weeks, and while I had hoped it wouldn't happen until after your birthday I had no such luck. I hope you understand, I will try and get you something nice while I am in the capital. I will give you your gift and pay for your meal at Ichiraku Ramen when I come back.

Sarutobi Hiruzen

Sandaime Hokage of Konoha

Jiji'

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at the last part, although he was still sad the old man had missed his birthday, and that he hadn't seen the note earlier.

"So, I take it some of your questions got explained in the letter? Then could you get the stuff you actually want to keep so we can get moving, I'm tired and I want to go to sleep." The woman said getting a bit annoyed at having to stand in a ruined apartment when she was so close to her house and her own bed.

Naruto quickly looked up from the note, as if he had almost forgotten she was there. "Umm… Ok, but could you leave? I don't really want you to see…" He trailed off as if a bit embarrassed.

She just shrugged and said "Sure, you're not the only who keeps their stuff hidden somewhere in your home." Before turning and walking out the door.

Naruto made sure she left before quickly going into his bedroom and walked into a corner and bent down. He twisted a power outlet and a floorboard seemed to pop up a bit and he quickly lifted it and took out a small wooden box before opening it to make sure it hadn't been found. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that it still had a copy of his photos as well as the few gifts he had gotten from the few people he considered precious. He tucked the box into a large pocket inside his jacket and made it his way out front.

"I'm good to go." He simply said.

The woman just nodded before she grabbed his shoulder. She then made sure to concentrate a bit more this time when she made a one handed Ram seal and disappeared in another Shunshin. When she let go of his shoulder he saw a medium sized house with a large stone wall and a steel gate a bit outside the center of the city as is quite popular amongst ninjas. As they walked up towards the gate Naruto decided to ask his new host something.

"Soooo…. What's your name? If we're going to be living together it might be a good thing to know? Ah, I'm Uzumaki Naruto by the way!" He asked.

She glanced at him for a bit before looking back at the gate. "Akira, Kobayashi Akira." The newly identified Akira said before biting her thumb and stroking her blood on the gate. A seal appeared and the gate swung open. Akira walked through while Naruto took a bit longer while he got over his surprise of the gate opening because she put blood on it!

"Wha?! How… Why did the gate open because you put blood on it?!" He asked when he hurried after her. She glanced at him again before explaining.

"Because there's a blood seal on it, it will only open for me and for people that I've approved of." Akira told him.

Naruto looked amazed that you could do something like that. Maybe if he had one of those things as well they wouldn't have gotten into his apartment… Shaking his head he stopped thinking about that and looked around. The house itself was a one story traditional Japanese house that seemed to be able to house at least a small family, it had a small garden that didn't look all that well tended to other than obvious weeds being removed, he could see what seemed to be a rather large training field out back, containing a pond, some trees, a rocky area and some target dummies, and all around the property was a 5 meter tall wall that seemed to be made of solid stone, most likely made by an Earth jutsu. All in all, it was actually quite impressive.

"Wow, this place is really nice, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly, before thinking about something. "Is it just you that lives here? Or is there anyone else?"

"No, it's just me, and you for now obviously" Akira said with a yawn. "I just thought that I might as well get a real house since I could easily afford it."

Akira opened the door and Naruto followed her inside the house. The inside seemed pretty simple, there was an area just inside the door to leave your shoes and places to keep your outdoor clothes, corridor leading left and an open door on the right, just inside the door you could see a living room and further in you could see a rather large kitchen. The corridor on the left had doors on each side, 2 on the right side and 3 on the left. There was another door at the end of the corridor. The floor, walls and roof all seemed to be of various kinds of polished wood. Naruto and Akira took of their shoes and Akira started pointing out the various rooms.

"Okay, to the right you got the living room and kitchen, there's a door in the living room going out back to the training area which you can use, you're an academy student right?" She said and got a nod in return. "Good, well you can train if you like. On your left is the bedrooms and bathrooms just pick one on the left side, the 2 outer rooms are bedrooms and the one in the middle is the bathroom. There's also silencing seals that will stop sound from going out but will allow sound in, however you can stop sound from coming in as well by turning the lever beside the door, that will stop all sound unless they actually knock on the door. There's an Onsen at the far end of the corridor, and if you enter the wrong half I will kill you, just so you know. Now I'm going to sleep and if you wake me up early I will kill you for that too." She said in a joking tone, while her eyes told him she really would kill him if he woke her up.

Naruto just gulped and nodded quickly.

"Glad we have an agreement." Akira said before she walked over to one of the doors on the right and coming out again with a bundle of clothes, she then walked to the other door and entered the bathroom.

Naruto opened the first door on the left and saw an average sized room with a double bed, a closet, a desk with a chair, a bookcase and a small couch with a table. He looked around for a bit before he took out the box he had and put it on the desk. Taking another look around him he thought. 'This is a lot better than my room.' And went to sit on the bed.

After a while he started to feel hungry and decided to ask Akira before she actually went to bed if he was allowed to take something to eat from the kitchen and started to walk out of the door.

As he left the room he got to see Akira without her cloak on for the first time. She was wearing sleeping pants and a white tank top. She is quite tall, standing at around 175 cm, looks to be around 20 years old or so and although you could see she is well-trained she does not look very muscular. She had short dark gray hair that was a bit spiky and had a 1 cm sling of hair at the back of her neck that reached the bottom of her shoulder blades along with dark green eyes. She has average breasts and a her face looks quite nice.

However Naruto doesn't care about any of that, he's 8 years old.

"Hey Akira, I was just wondering if it's okay if I eat something from the kitchen?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, sure, as long as you make it yourself. Good night brat." Akira said with a yawn and starts to walk towards her room.

"Hey! I'm not a brat!" Naruto yelled quite loudly. Akira flinched, turns and looks at Naruto while narrowing her eyes. Naruto gulps and repeats the same thing in a much more subdued volume. "I'm not a brat, I'm not."

"You just started screaming just because I called you a brat, that makes you a brat, now Shut Up and let me sleep." Akira says before she slammed the door.

Naruto stood there muttering for a while looking at the door for a short time, after that he made his way to the kitchen and made a sandwich.

"She doesn't have any Ramen… How can she live without Ramen?!" Naruto grumbles before finishing his meal and cleaning up the kitchen. He looks out of the window to see that its pitch black and raining. "Oh well, at least I don't have to sleep outside." He says before preparing for bed. 'This place is actually pretty cool. Maybe I can have something similar when I become a ninja! I will have to speak to the old man when he comes back' was the last thing he thought before he fell asleep.

* * *

AN: Well There you have it! The first chapter. It's mostly an introduction. We show Akira and have a reason Naruto stays with her. The fact that the Hokage is out of town will be brought up in the next chapter a bit. Oh, and Akira's cloak of from The Ranger's Apprentice. And I picked her name because I found a reference from an actual Naruto character when I googled it hehe. And don't worry, she will not act like that character.

As for Akira there will not be any romance between her and Naruto, actually there's sort of a hint in there somewhere about that but meh, might remove that altogether.

For romance in general, I have not decided if there will be any at all. However, if there is these girls are not an option: Hyuuga Hinata, Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino. Why? Well it's quite simple really

Hyuuga Hinata: Member of a clan that goes to great lengths to keep the Byakugan inside the clan, and although I quite like her, I don't see her overly shy personality to be strong enough to stand up to her clan if Naruto says he does not want to be a Hyuuga. She will not have crush on Naruto in my fic, not only do I think they are a bit young for that during the academy, I also do not like that if she do have a crush on Naruto you have to hurt her feelings to make her give up (Naruto crushed on Sakura for the whole time in the academy and her feelings was just as strong anyway) She will still admire Naruto's determination however and strive to better herself.

Haruno Sakura: Fan girl and I do not like her, At All, during the first part. I'm not really that fond of her after the time skip either.

Yamanaka Ino: Fan girl and I kinda like the idea of her going with Choji when he get's some more confidence.

If you do want me to try my hand on romance (probably not any lemons) send me a private message instead of leaving a review and tell me who you'd think would go well with Naruto or if there's enough room for me to change them to work. I can work with ages and all things like that, if Kishimoto can change things on a whim in canon, I can do so in my fan fic. That's all! I hope I didn't screw up too badly! Cya!


	2. Chapter 2

AN: I'm here with another chapter! I was quite surprised when I saw that I allready had a review, and it was a positive one as well! Woho! This chapter is basically so that Naruto and Akira will get to know each other a bit more.

**I do not own Naruto**

**Ramen and Sunshine**

Naruto was in heaven! He had just been named the Godaime Hokage and Konoha had turned into a sea of ramen in every flavor! And not just any Ramen, but Ichiraku Ramen, the Food of the Gods!

"GYAHAHAHA! This is awesome! Ramen! Ramen everywhere! Is this heaven?! It must be! This is best day of my life, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled happily, ramen everywhere, and it was all his! He jumped into a pool of miso ramen and started devouring the delicious noodles so fast it looked like he was inhaling them. "Mmmmm… Soooo gooooooood! I can't believe this! It's like a dream come true! Wait… Dream?"

And when that thought struck, the area around Naruto started breaking apart and he started falling through a dark hole in the ground. He could still see the ramen but it was slowly getting further and further away. "Nooo! My ramen! Give me back my ramen, dattebayo!" Naruto cried while he desperately tried to "swim" through the darkness to get back up to the ramen, and for a short while he was succeeding, but then.

BANG!

"YEOUCH!" Naruto yelled and his eyes shot wide open, something he immediately regretted. "AAARGH! God Damn Ball of Fiery DEATH! My eyes! It burns! My eyes are burning!" He yelled while clutching is shut eyes. He laid there for a while, whimpering, and waited for his eyes to adjust to the light. After a while he started to slowly open his eyes, still wincing at the bright light. When he had adjusted he noticed the cause he woke up in the first place, the bed was a mess and he was currently lying on the floor, and of course this put him directly in view of the window, he concluded that this was NOT a good way to start the day.

"Aww man… And that dream was so awesome too, dattebayo…" He whined a bit while he started standing up, dressed in a pair of green boxers with red toads on and a white t-shirt with a red spiral on the back. As he was looking around he noticed that something was wrong, this room was way too nice to be in his rundown apartment. "Wait, where the hell am I?! Did I get kidnapped?! Why? I'm too young to die! I haven't become the Hokage yet!" He cried out while frantically looking around trying to find out where he was. He didn't calm down until he noticed the small wooden box with his belongings standing on the table by the couch.

"Oh yeah… That's why I'm here." He said a bit sadly as he remembered yesterday. Sure, he didn't have a lot of stuff and his apartment was pretty small and not in the best of shapes, but it was HIS apartment and HIS stuff. He shook his head to clear his head of depressing thoughts and took another look around the room. He noticed that there actually are some things already there, he hadn't noticed yesterday with everything that had happened. There are a few books in the bookcase, some simple landscape posters on the walls and a clock on the wall, showing that the time was 11:21. He walked towards the bookcase and picked up one of the books, it was a book containing funny stories, just something to pass the time with other words. As he started opening the book he suddenly froze.

'Wait… Yesterday was my birthday… And this year that was a Sunday… That would mean today… Is a Monday…' He thought with a small amount of fear as he looked back at the clock. 11:22, the academy starts at 08:00. "SHIT! Iruka-sensei is going to kill me!" He yelled and started running around the room and got dressed as quickly as he could, when he was dressed he rushed out of the door and took off without even looking.

"Ooof" Thud. He ran straight into Akira and fell on his butt. He looked up and saw Akira staring at him with a twitching eyebrow. She didn't look as tired as the day before, but you could see she was in no way well rested.

"Sorry! I'm LATE!" He said before he got up and tried to run around her.

"Oh no you don't!" Akira said before grabbing the collar of his jumpsuit and lifting him of the ground. "You're not going to just run away after bumping into me this early in the fucking morning without a damn good reason you little brat!"

Naruto was struggling and he slowly starting to panic at the thought of what Iruka-sensei would do to him if he didn't get to the academy soon.

"Let go of me! I'm already late and if I don't hurry up Iruka-sensei is going to murder me, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled while he struggled to get out of Akira's grip to no avail. "Let me go already! I need to get to the academy!"

Akira just blinked at him, and a second time, and a third, before she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Umm… You do know its October 11 today, right?" She asked with a slightly annoyed tone.

"Yeah, what about it?! Let me down! I'm late!" Naruto yelled while still flailing around.

Akira then dropped him on the floor with a loud thud that made him oof and let out a sigh.

"The thing about it, is that the academy is closed today and for the rest of the week. So you're not late, brat. And your teachers should have told you that before you left Friday last week." She said and rubbed her temples, the brat was being too damn loud, maybe she should go and get drunk? That might be a good idea, even if she was tired as hell. S Ranks are a bitch…

Naruto sat on floor blinking, before closing his eyes and scrunching up his face while tilting his head slightly to the left. Did they really say something like that last week? When he thought about it, he vaguely remembered something that sounded like that, so maybe, just maybe she was right. He was brought out of his deep thoughts when he heard an amused chuckle nearby.

"Huh? What are you laughing about?! Tell me, dattebayo." He said while looking at Akira.

"Chuckle. Oh, nothing really. You just look kinda cute when you're thinking." Akira said before she started walking towards the kitchen, while still chuckling slightly.

"Oh thanks. WAIT! I'm not cute damn it! Take it back! The Hokage can't be cute, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled while he jumped and started following Akira, looking a bit annoyed.

Akira just laughed and put a finger on her chin and put on a look of deep thought.

"Oh I don't know about that, I always thought the Yondaime was a bit of a pretty boy. And you'd have to become the Hokage first before any of that matters anyway. And so far I haven't seen anything all that impressive." She said with a mischievous grin.

Naruto stumbled at that, the Yondaime, his hero and idol, a pretty boy? That couldn't be true could it, right? He had to admit, other than the face on the Hokage monument he hadn't actually seen how the Yondaime looked. But there's no way his hero was a pretty boy, he was willing to bet he was a badass through and through. After all, he beat a 50 meter tall demon fox! Even if he died he still did it! He's the reason there still was a Konoha. Wait, what was that she said?!

"Hey! I'll become Hokage before you know it! I'll become the best Hokage ever! Just you wait and see! And then you and everyone else have to acknowledge me, dattebayo!" He said with conviction.

Akira just looked at him before shaking her head.

"Not if that's your reason to try and become Hokage you won't." She said bluntly. "Tell me this, what does it mean to be Hokage?"

"That's easy! It means that you're the strongest ninja in the village and that everyone must respect you, dattebayo!" Naruto said without hesitation.

"No. No it doesn't." Akira simply said, making Naruto look at her and narrow his eyes, was she going to laugh at his dream too? "The Hokage position is about a lot more than just strength and respect. And until you learn just what the position means, your dream will be nothing but just that, a dream. And even if you begin understand what it means to be Hokage, you're going to have to work extremely hard to get there." She continued as she opened the door to the kitchen. "Now if you want anything to eat, sit down and shut up."

Naruto muttered under his breath as he went to sit down at the table, part of him wanted to yell at her to shut up, but his stomach said "Sit down, I'm empty" So he did just that, his stomach was right more often than his brain anyway. Now when he was no longer panicking about being late, or being angry at being called cute, he thought about what had been said, and noticed what Akira was wearing. She was wearing dark blue cargo pants, a black t-shirt with blue waves and the kanji for water on the back and a pair of black socks.

"What did you mean by 'this early in the morning' anyway? It's not early, even for me." He suddenly asked. Akira took something out of the freezer and put it into the microwave and then turned to look at him.

"This is the first time in 2 days I've slept, I'm tired and sore and I'm pissed at the damn civilians on the Council, this is way too early to deal with this crap. So yes, it is early." She said before opening a cupboard and taking out 2 plates and glasses. She then took a bottle of milk out of the refrigerator and took out a pair of chopsticks from a drawer and put them on the table as well. Soon the microwave signaled that the food was ready and she put it down on the table and put a spoon to put it on the plate. It was a simple stew with rice in a round container separated with a wall in the middle. It looked simple but pretty well done. Naruto waited until Akira had put her portion on her plate before taking some as well.

"You keep talking about the Council, I thought it was the Hokage that took care of everything? At least that's what Jiji tells me when I ask what he does in the village." Naruto asked before taking a bite, it was actually pretty good, simple but tasty, and would probably have been even better if it hadn't been frozen first. "This is good, where did you buy it?"

"Thanks, and I made it. And unless you want to eat ration bars all the time if you manage to become a ninja you will probably learn how to make simple meals as well. Those things are disgusting." Akira said, she took a few bites before continuing. "I keep talking about the Council for the same reason the Hokage isn't in the village. Every 10 years the Hokage has to meet the Fire Daimyo and various important figures in Fire Country to discuss the future of Konoha's budget and things like that, the meeting takes 2 weeks so they got time to go through all the important things. During this time the Council is in charge of missions and a few other things, and since the ninja part of the council is made up out of clan heads the civilians is in charge of missions to prevent them from giving the best missions to their own clan and things like that. Unfortunately I think the Nidaime was drunk when he gave the power to the Council all those years ago, because it sure as hell doesn't work as it should. Anyway, the Hokage left for the meeting around 5 days ago. So he should be back in another 10 days, 9 if he moves quickly."

Naruto tried to digest that information for a bit and thought about it.

'Great… It's not a secret that the civilians on the Council don't like me, I'm willing to bet that's why none of the ANBU that helps me was on patrol yesterday… And it's going to stay this way for another 9 days at best… I guess it's best if I stay here and lay low until the Hokage is back, but I still need to get some new clothes to replace the ones that was ruined, and I probably need to get some other things as well, urgh, there goes my savings…' He thought.

"What have gotten you all depressed then brat?" Akira said after a while, noticing that the boy's mood seemed to be getting worse the longer he was thinking. "Does thinking hurt that much?" She said in an attempt to distract him.

Naruto shook his head and glared at her so that part worked at least. Then he sighed and started speaking.

"Most of stuff was destroyed with the rest of my apartment, when I've replaced everything I'm going to be broke… And it's not a secret that the civilians on the council don't like me for some reason so I can't expect any help from ANBU if someone tries anything…" Naruto said a bit depressed.

Akira thought about what she knew about the boy so far. 'Huh. He's not as stupid as I thought. Both yesterday and today he's capable of drawing conclusions and he didn't just trust me the second I showed up, it was more like he didn't have an actual choice. Oh well, I can help with the shopping bit atleast.'

"Hey brat, if you write a list of what you need I can buy it for you, and then you can pay me back when you got the money. This is a ninja house, meaning that I've made sure people can't enter without my permission so you could stay here to avoid the majority of your problems. They can't keep the others away forever and you don't have to go to the academy for a week either, so just lay low until the regular ANBU is back on patrol" She said when she finished eating.

"Stop calling me a brat, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled before he blinked when his brain caught up with the rest. "Wait, you'd help? Why?"

"Because I got to go grocery shopping and I might as well pick up your stuff on the way, and it's not like I have a shortage of money." She responded while putting the dishes in the sink. "Also I'm not going to just let you stay here for free, you're going to be doing the dishes and clean the house while you stay here." She said with a smirk.

"Aw come on! Both of those things are boring!" Naruto whined as he hung his head. "Well, at least it beats sleeping outdoors…" He muttered.

"Yeah yeah, now get working on that list so you can start with the chores." Akira said without a care. "I want to get moving already." Before handing him a pen and a piece of paper.

Still grumbling about having to do chores, he hated chores, Naruto started writing down the things he would need.

"Clothes, Kunai and Shuriken, The books on academy basics and Ramen!" He said while writing.

"A toothbrush and some toothpaste as well, your breath STINKS!" Akira chimed in.

"Nobody asked you!" Naruto snapped but added the items to the list before handing it over.

Akira took the note and started walking towards the door, when she read the note however she suddenly stopped and just stared at it before turning her gaze to Naruto.

Naruto squirmed a bit before asking. "What? What is it?" Akira looked at him a while longer before she read from the note.

"20 Miso Ramen, 10 Beef Ramen, 10 Chicken Ramen, 10 Vegetable Ramen and 10 Sea food Ramen. Just how much ramen do you intend to eat?" She said a bit scared, and impressed to be honest, because that's a lot of ramen.

"Hey! You can never have enough ramen! It's the best food in the world, dattebayo!" Naruto said a bit defensive. "And you don't have any at home, how can you even survive without ramen?!" Akira just stared at him.

"You're going to end up being a midget if all you eat is ramen, you know that right?" She said after a while.

Narutos eyes widened first in anger, and then in horror. Was it true? His divine ramen couldn't be the reason he was shorter than others his age, could it? No, of course not, but maybe… No! Bad thoughts! Trust in the ramen, let the ramen flow through your veins, let ramen fill your mind, trust in the ramen. Amen.

"What do you mean ramen will make me a midget?! It's the glorious food of the gods!" Naruto said after a while.

"While ramen is pretty good, I admit, it is not healthy. And if you don't eat healthy your body will not get what it needs to grow, and you will be a midget. It is that simple." Akira said with a deadpan expression.

By this time Naruto was panicking, would he really be a shorty if he just ate ramen? But it was so good! And one of the few things he could afford as well! What should he do?!

Seeing that Naruto was panicking Akira sighed before she spoke up.

"Look, you can still eat ramen for lunch, just make sure you eat healthy during breakfast and dinner and you should be fine. Probably… Anyway, I'll go now, start with the chores while I get everything." She said, when she started to walk away she suddenly stopped. "Oh I almost forgot to check what size I should get on your clothes."

After she said that she walked up to Naruto and checked his jumpsuit and pants to see what size they were, making Naruto a bit uncomfortable in the process, always a plus!

"I suppose you want the theme to be orange by what I can see." She said dryly before leaving. "See you later brat!"

"I'm not a brat!" Naruto yelled after her when the door closed. He started doing the dishes and cleaning after she had left. It was already quite clean so it didn't take very long.

* * *

**45 minutes later**

* * *

Akira walked through the door and proceeded to walk towards the kitchen. When she got to the living room however she noticed Naruto lying on the couch, sleeping. After watching him for a while she went into the kitchen, took a scroll out of her pocket and unsealed the various groceries and the many cups of ramen Naruto had requested. After everything was unsealed and in place she opened the freezer and removed a few ice cubes before walking back to the sleeping Naruto. After staring at him for a while, she started smirking before gently lifting his head of the couch. When the boy was sitting up, she put the ice cubes in his jumpsuit at the back.

"GYAAAAAAAAAH! COLD! COLD! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Freezing! It's freezing!" Naruto shouted as he woke up. He immediately jumped of the couch and started trying to get the ice cubes out of his clothes, after jumping around in a panic for a while he finally managed to get the cubes to drop on the floor. As he stood and tried to catch his breath he glared at Akira who just stood there, smirk still in place.

"What the hell! Why did you do that, dattebayo?!" He yelled at her, which just caused her smirk to widen into a grin.

"Oh no reason, I just felt like it." She said, clearly amused. Which caused Naruto to glare at her even harder.

"It was NOT funny!" He said through clenched teeth.

"Actually it kinda was, for me at least. Anyway, here you go." She said before tossing him a scroll. Naruto caught it and just stared at it. Before looking up and asking.

"Umm… What's this? Why did you give me a scroll?" He asked a bit unsure.

"It's a storage scroll with your stuff." She said, after a while her grin dropped. "Umm… you do know how to use a storage scroll right?" She asked. Naruto looked down and shook his head a bit.

"Okay… It used to be one of the first things taught at the academy." She said before she walked up to him and took the scroll and opening it. "You just push a bit of chakra into the scroll and whatever you put into it pops out, either focus on a specific item and it will appear or just focus on unsealing all of it and it will do so" She said while pushing a bit of chakra into the scroll and with a poof she held a brand new shuriken set. "To seal them back in, just push some chakra through the item into the scroll and you're all set." She put the shuriken set on the scroll and in another poof it disappeared. While Akira was doing this Naruto was staring wide eyed and slack jawed at what he just saw.

"That's so cool! How is that even possible?! Can you seal anything into a scroll? Can you seal item into other things than scrolls?! Tell me, dattebayo!" He burst out excitedly. Akira just blinked at how excited he was over a simple storage scroll.

"Umm… I have a seal that only allow people whose blood I've approved into the seal and you get excited over a storage scroll? Really? And it's possible through Fūinjutsu. And yeah, you can seal things into other things than scrolls, see?" She said and channeled some chakra into her arm. A black tattoo appeared and with a poof she held a couple of shuriken in her hand.

"Awesome! How come I've never heard about it before?! Can anyone learn to use Fūinjutsu? Can you teach me? Please? I'll do anything, pleaseee!" Naruto said in an excited voice and tried to grab Akira's hands. She jumped back a bit and held her hands up.

"Whoa, calm down! First of all, I'm holding a bunch of sharp metal stars, watch the hands! Secondly, Fūinjutsu takes a long time to learn, and we don't know how long you will be around. I can teach how to use some basic seals but that's about it, learning how to actually Create or even Draw your own seals would take too long. And yeah, everyone can learn how to use Fūinjutsu, it just takes so long and can kill you if done wrong that almost no one bothers with it. I'm one of the few who do." She says. Once Naruto stops trying to grab her hands she reseals the shurikens into her arm again, the tattoo fading once she stop channeling chakra through it.

"You mean it? You will really teach me?" He says with a grin. Akira just shrugs.

"Yeah, sure. As long as I'm not doing anything else I guess I can show you some basics. Now check your things if there's something missing." She says while pointing at the scroll.

Naruto quickly unseals the contents of the scroll and look at what he got, he's pleased to see that most of the clothes has some form of orange on them. After he finishes checking that he got everything he needs he notice that there is a few bits of paper there as well. Picking one up he realizes they are receipts. After checking the amount on all of them he frowns.

"Umm… Akira? Was there a sale or something?" He asks.

"No, they were all full price. Why?" She answers after a short while.

"That can't be right… All of these things together are cheaper than 1 of my jumpsuits…" He says in surprise. When Akira hears this she gets a blank look on her face.

'Seriously? I knew they didn't like him, but to charge him that much for a "Kill me now" jumpsuit? This is ridiculous!' She thought. 'I thought Hokage-sama would pay more attention to things like that, or does he really have that much "faith" in the villagers?'

"I'm sorry to say this brat, but you got ripped off. Badly." She says after a while.

After she said that you could easily see Naruto's face fall. Noticing he seems to get more and more depressed Akira sighs and says.

"Well, I can't get you your money back, but I can try to teach you what to keep an eye on to see if the people you're talking to are honest or is trying to harm you in some way. Would you like me to try?" She asks.

The effect is instantaneous and Naruto goes from depressed to excited in a heartbeat.

"Really?! You will teach me?" He says with a happy voice.

"I can try, however it all depends on how good you are to pick up on things whether I can teach you or not." She says with another shrug. "Now go play or something, I'm still sore since yesterday and I'm going to take a bath. Remember what I said, you peek, you die."

As she say that she starts walking towards the onsen. Naruto smiles and look back to his new things.

'Maybe my apartment getting trashed wasn't so bad after all… At least I got someone to teach me stuff now, not even Jiji does that since he's so busy.'

He seals everything back into the scroll again and goes to put them into his room, after that he just got to entertain himself until Akira feels like teaching him.

* * *

AN: There you go! It's still a bit slow, should pick up once I actually get to the training part though. At least I hope so. I hope it's readable.

Next chapter should have Akira teaching Naruto some basic things and the Sandaime returning.

Untill next time!


	3. Chapter 3

AN: I got another chapter done. And... That's pretty much all I got to say at this point... Umm... Well... Enjoy!

**I do not own Naruto**

**Orange and Water fights.**

After Naruto got back to his room he quickly unsealed all the things Akira had bought for him and started placing them around the room. When he was done he decided to finally get out of his old clothes, after running around the whole day yesterday, well, they didn't smell very good. He chose to change into a pair of cargo pants with a tiger pattern in black and orange, a white t-shirt with orange flames and a pair of orange boxers. He really had to remember thanking Akira for getting him orange clothes, he really likes orange, it's an awesome color!

After he had changed clothes he put the old ones in a basket for dirty clothes, if he's a guest then he should probably try and keep things tidy. After that he tried to find something to do while waiting for Akira to get out of the onsen.

'Hmm… What to do… Hmmmm…' He thought as he sat on the bed. After thinking for a while he picked up the books concerning the academy basics, might as well… Study… 'shudders', now that Akira was nice enough to buy them for him. He looked at the different books one at a time before deciding on Taijutsu, after all, it looks to be the most interesting. He opened the book and tried to find where he left of, only to find that he didn't recognize any of the stances. Sure, they were familiar but not exactly the same.

"Huh? That's weird, did she get the wrong books?" He said as he flipped the book around to check the title again. It was the right book, but the contents were still a bit different. "Hmm… Maybe it's a newer version or something? The stances look a bit more like the ones he saw the teacher use, so it probably is a good thing, dattebayo." He decided after a while. Content that he had solved the mystery Naruto began reading the book, it was a lot of theory so he quickly got bored, but he kept on reading for about half an hour when he got interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Hey Naruto, I'm done now so come to the living room and I'll try to teach you how to read people." Akira's voice sounded from the other side.

"All right! Let's do this, dattebayo!" He yelled happily before quickly putting the Taijutsu book and ran out the door and moved to the living room.

Once he got there Akira gestured for him to sit down and stood thinking for a bit before starting to explain.

"To read people you need to pay attention to their body language, tone of voice and eyes, sometimes you got to, I don't really know how to explain it, feel? Let's go with that, feel, what their intentions are. That part is mostly through experience though, after you get good enough to read people you will sometimes be able to tell when they are sincere or not, even if they manage to fake their actions well enough to avoid being detected." Akira explained and then began telling him what things he should look for. After a while she stopped at looked at Naruto who was listening with a blank face. With a sigh she said. "You didn't understand a word I said, did you?" and put her face in her palm.

"Umm… A little bit? Eh-hehe." He said while scratching the back his head in embarrassment. Akira looked at him for a while, thinking, before putting her hands in a clone hand sign. There was a puff of smoke and then there was another Akira standing there. The new Akira looked reluctant before sighing in defeat. In another puff of smoke, the second Akira was gone, and in her place was.

"Hey! It's that creepy fat guy from the market!" Naruto exclaimed while pointing. The Akira turned fat guy hung her, his, arms and looked like she, he, was going to die from embarrassment.

"Yeah yeah. No teasing the clone. I thought it would be easier to understand if you had a visual example than to just tell you what to look for, now pay attention." She said. After Naruto turned his attention back to her she gestured to the clone that just sighed, and then rolled her, his, bah, IT'S shoulders and, started acting like someone completely different. The eyes seemed to get a slightly greedy glint in them and it had a smile that seemed just a little bit off, and the way his hands moved was a bit weird. Naruto knew that look. The said merchant always had that look when he tried to sell him something, actually he had that look when he tried to sell Anything when he thought about it.

"This is an example of a person who is greedy. This guy in particular usually tries to sell his goods at a higher price than they are actually worth, now these are the tells of what his intentions are." Akira told him before pointing out various stances, looks and a bunch of other things that gave away a person's intentions. She had the clone transform into various other people and had it act like them before breaking down their behavior and explaining the various things that made a person react like that. She was pleased to note that if he had a visual reference, Naruto was actually a pretty good student. The lesson went on for a couple of hours before Akira said it was time to eat, and took that opportunity to teach Naruto the basics of how to cook. Naruto of course, wanted to make ramen, but that idea got shot down pretty quickly and they ended up making curry with rice. While eating she had Naruto try to review the lesson earlier and was happy to hear he remembered most of it, now it was just a manner of repeating the lesson until he could point out the tells without her aid and when someone who she hadn't used as a reference had them. After dinner Akira watched TV for a bit while she had Naruto reading from the book on Taijutsu. She answered any questions that came up and helped him get into the right stances when he tried them. This continued until it got late and it was time to go to sleep.

* * *

**The next day**

* * *

When Naruto woke up the next morning he quickly got dressed and got ready in hopes of getting some more training. When he was ready he started looking around to see if Akira was awake. While the house seemed to be empty, the door in the living room leading to the training field behind the house was open. He quickly went out the door and tried to find her. He soon found her, standing on the large pond, with her hands clapped together in a praying motion with her eyes closed. Just before he's about to scream about how she is standing on the water, he notices that the water is acting strange, there's whirlpools randomly appearing before disappearing, tendrils of water rising from the surface before dissolving into droplets that swirl around her before falling back to the surface. Naruto just stands there staring with his mouth open.

'That's… Amazing, dattebayo! How is that happening?! Is Akira doing this?! How?! It's so… beautiful…' He thought. And it really was, the sun reflected from the droplets to create quite a display and the sound of the water was quite calming. Naruto just stood there frozen watching the display.

* * *

**A couple of hours later**

* * *

Akira was starting to really feel the strain of using her chakra to control the water for so long and decided that it was time to end the exercise and started to drop her focus, but when she started focusing less on the water she could sense Naruto nearby and guessed that he was most likely watching what she was doing. Her lips curved into a small smirk as she started focusing even more on the water and it started stirring.

Naruto stared in shock as several large tendrils rose from the water and slowly moved back and forth. And then, as if on a silent command they all froze for a split second before rushing towards him to try and capture him. Naruto jumped and started running to avoid getting caught.

"AAH! What's going on?! Stop it! Get away from MEE!" He cried while desperately trying to outrun the water. He managed to avoid it for about 15 seconds before he got caught. As he was staring down on his clothes that was now soaked, he heard chuckling coming from the pond and he turned and glared at Akira who was standing slightly bent forward breathing heavily while chuckling.

"Not, Funny, dattebayo." Naruto said through clenched teeth making her chuckle a bit louder as she tried to catch her breath.

"Like I said yesterday, for me it was." She said when she straightened up as she caught her breath, a wide smirk on her face. "Although I probably overdid it, you actually managed to avoid the water pretty well so I had to keep pumping chakra in it to make it move faster." Naruto quickly forgot that he was soaked and remembered that the water Moved.

"Oh yeah! How did you do that?! It was awesome, dattebayo!" He yelled loudly. "Can you teach me to do it aswell?! Please! I will work hard!" Akira just shook her head at how excited he was.

"No, sorry. But to control water you must have very good chakra control and you must train in elemental chakra manipulation. This usually takes years, and if you don't have an affinity for water it will take even longer. We don't have nearly enough time before your apartment is fixed to even begin." She said. "How I did it though, was by converting my chakra to the water element and mixing it in with the actual water. It's a great way to train both elemental manipulation and regular chakra control. It's pretty tiring though so you usually stick to easier things like whirlpools and small tendrils. The large tendrils I used to catch you take A LOT of chakra."

Naruto's face fell when he heard she couldn't teach him to control water, and even more when he thought about why.

'Oh yeah… I'm just staying here until my apartment gets fixed. I almost forgot…' He thought sadly as he was starting to like living with Akira, even after just one day. It felt nice to know there was someone nearby when you woke up in the morning, and she was willing to teach him on top of that. Akira could see that Naruto was a bit depressed over the matter, although she assumed it was just because he wanted to learn water manipulation. Then all of a sudden Naruto's stomach rumbled, loudly. He blushed when Akira laughed at him.

"Come on, let's eat. We can have ramen and I'll show you some basic seals you could have use for later on." She said while chuckling as she walked towards the house. Naruto followed closely behind fighting down the blushing on his cheeks.

Naruto inhaled his ramen, after Akira told him he couldn't eat ramen for breakfast or dinner unless he wanted to stay short he had decided to eat as much as he could during lunch instead, and he was doing a good job too. Akira was pretty much in a morbid awe over how much ramen the tiny boy could eat with exploding from the pressure, before shaking her head and concentrating on eating her own ramen. After lunch she sent him out to the training field again as she went and got the seals she wanted to show him before joining him. She made a small table using a Doton jutsu to place the seals on.

"All right, the seals I'm going to show you are a few different storage seals, some various 'explosive' seals, although not the ones that explode in fire." At this comment Naruto's face fell. He liked explosions. "I'm also going to show you a few restriction seals that can be used in combat. Now pay attention." She said and Naruto nodded.

"This first seal is a basic storage scroll, nothing really special about it. You put things inside of it to save space or hide them, as you saw earlier I have a couple of advanced storage seals on my arms that are only visible when I channel chakra into them. And then there's this seal. It's an Elemental storage seal, with it you can seal a specific element into a scroll to release later. These are actually the reason I took up sealing in the first place as I have a water affinity. Although when you master water manipulation you are able to multiply water particles, only the Nidaime Hokage have ever reached a level where he rely on this ability to produce enough water to fight, no matter where he was. I myself can only draw enough water from the air for a simple defensive jutsu unless given enough time, and my ability is next to useless in the desert or in other areas with low humidity. So I did this instead." She said and lifted a scroll with a blue edge and opened it, and then she channeled some chakra into it. A huge amount of water burst forth from the scroll, soaking the ground and the lower portions of their clothes even though Naruto tried to jump back to avoid it.

"Whoa! How much water was in that thing?!" Naruto burst out in surprise.

"Each scroll contains about 100 liters of water which I can then multiply several times. It's truly a godsend for water users since we rely so heavily on having an existing source of water for our jutsus. Elemental seals can also be used to block enemy jutsus if you have an empty seal for the right element and manage to time it right. The seals are extremely expensive since they are so hard to make though, which was why I decided to make my own." Akira explained. "Do you understand?"

"Uh-huh! You can put jutsus in those cool scrolls and use them later!" He said with a grin.

"Umm. Close enough." She said as she used water manipulation to seal the water again. After the water was gone she took another seal attached to a kunai from the pile. "This is a flash tag. It basically creates a burst of bright light and creates a loud sound when triggered. It's perfect for distractions or misdirection. It's really easy to use, just channel some chakra into it or set it up to detonate in a trap. Don't look up, you will notice the purpose of the tag even if you don't and you will hurt your eyes if you do." She said as she ignited the tag and threw it into the air. After a short while a loud bang was heart and the area was bathed in a bright light. Naruto winced a bit at the light and noise.

"I can see how that would be unpleasant if it detonated in front of you." He muttered. Akira held up another piece of paper with a seal on it.

"Yeah, it hurts like hell and disorients you pretty badly. Anyway, this is an exploding tag that sends out a liquid or gas when it detonates, it's called a dispenser tag, this one is just filled with water to demonstrate. Watch." She said before attaching it to a kunai and throwing it onto a three. There was a sizzling sound before water flew in every direction from the tag. "These are actually quite nasty, they can be filled with everything from water to acids or poison gas. If you don't watch out a single one could take out an entire squad. The explosion tag is a simpler way to do this but makes a lot more noise, so these are a better option if you need to be quiet." She then noticed the way Naruto was eyeing the flash tag and dispenser tag with a mischievous look in his eyes as his mouth started forming a wide grin, obviously thinking how he can use them for pranks.

'Heh, I may have created a monster. Sniff. I'm so proud of myself.' She thought with a mental smile and pat on her back. She snapped her fingers in front of his face to bring him back.

"Pay attention, I only have 3 seals left to show you." She said as she picked up 2 seals from the table. "This is a gravity seal and a chakra disruption seal, these two can actually be used in hand to hand combat. Put one of these in your hand and a glancing palm strike can end the battle. If you hold out your hand and I'll demonstrate." As Naruto held out his hand she put the gravity seal on it and channeled some chakra into it. He immediately noticed something was wrong, his entire body felt sluggish and heavy and he could barely move. He fell to his hands and knees and struggled not to face plant into the ground. Luckily Akira removed the seal before that happened.

"As you can see, this makes it very hard to fight properly, even if you have the muscle or chakra control to keep moving it will mess up your body control enough to most likely turn the tide of the battle." She said as Naruto managed to get off the ground. "Some people use them for training, however since they put weight on your entire body, including your skeleton, you should not use them for a long period of time unless you're fully grown or they will stunt your growth." Naruto gulped at that, silently vowing not to use them for training. "Now, this other seal, will not have much of an effect on you since you can't really use chakra yet. However, for ninjutsu specialists this one is a pain in the ass. It messes with your chakra control, making delicate jutsus unusable and making the others take more chakra than needed, making the person tire more quickly. Do you remember how I controlled the water earlier?" After Naruto nodded she put the seal on her hand and activated it, then she went over to the pond with him following closely behind. She put her hands together in a praying gesture and focused. A tendril rose up from the water, but was visibly shaking, as if the action was forced instead of the smooth control earlier. She held it for a short while before letting it collapse back into the water before removing the seal.

"As you can see these two seals are very useful if you can get them onto your opponent unnoticed. If they do notice them they will just tear them off." She said before picking up what seemed to be two metal rods. "These rods have a barrier seal inscribed on them. They can be used to create a strong, but short lasting barrier between the rods, with 3 or more rods you can create a barrier covering all directions but up and down. They are however one shot uses so you'd better make them count, and the further between each point, the weaker the barrier. And the amount of chakra needed to create the barrier seals are no joke" After she said that she threw the rods into the ground behind a training dummy and activated it. Then she rapidly made some hand seals.

"**Suiton: Mizurappa no jutsu!**" She shot a jet of water from her mouth towards the training dummy and the barrier. The jutsu slamme the training dummy into the barrier hard enough to shatter it, but the barrier held with no problem. After she stopped the jutsu the barrier faded, showing that the area behind it was undamaged. Naruto was visible impressed both by the jutsu and the barrier.

"It can't stop anything above a B rank, and some strong B rank jutsus will still break through. But if you use it at the right time, you could save someone's life or surprise your opponent enough to take them out." She explained before grinning. "So, what do you have to say about fūinjutsu? Pretty cool right?"

"Hell yes! There's so much I could do with them! I could prank everyone, dattebayo! Gyahahahaha!" He yelled before starting to laugh like a maniac. Akira raised an eyebrow at the display.

"Everyone? I do hope I'm exempted to that statement. Because if you do prank me, the retaliation will be… Most unpleasant for you. And most amusing for me." She said with scary smile. He gulped before promising he would never prank her.

Now that the display of the various seals she allowed Naruto to try them and explained where he could get either the materials to have them made or just buy the finished product, while it was cheaper to have them made it would be a bit trickier to find someone to make them.

"Can't you make them for me? Didn't you say you were a fūinjutsu user?" He asked after a while. Akira looked thoughtful at that for a bit.

'Hmm. Hell, why not? I can just have a clone make them and it will help to keep my skills from getting rusty.' She thought before looking at Naruto. "Sure, as long as you get me the things I need. And I will only do them if I got time. No nagging!" She said. Naruto started grinning again, already plotting the demise of the foolish villagers who hate and ignore him for no reason, and those who had just pissed him of. 'I wonder if I really should provide him with ammunition... Meh, at the worst the Hokage will tell me to stop making them for him, and I'll have some entertainment before that happens.' She thought while studying the evil grin.

With the lesson finished they entered the house, and the rest of the week was spent either teaching Naruto or training herself for Akira, and either reading, training or gardening for Naruto. Naruto had decided that he should fix Akira's garden for helping him train, giving him a place to stay and providing him with the seals that would take his already incredible pranking to a glorious new level. During the week his ability to read people grew quite a lot, he was now able to see if someone was sincere or not if they did not have the training to hide their intentions. He was also included in the blood seal on the gate so he could open it when he returned to the academy.

* * *

**Monday next week**

* * *

Naruto jerked awake once the alarm clock started beeping. He slammed his hand on the alarm to silence it and let out a groan. He then forced himself to sit up as he scratched the back of his head.

'Sigh. Do I really have to go back to the academy? They only go over the theory on all the things instead of anything practical, I'm going to die of boredom, dattebayo.' He thought as he willed his body to stand before getting dressed. He had washed his jumpsuit during the week so he quickly put it on before going to get breakfast. He ate some cereal and started to get ready to go, grabbing his books, shuriken and his kunai, the only practical things they would do before New Year. As he was putting his sandals on Akira walked by with a yawn.

"So brat, are you excited to be back in the academy after so long?" She said with a knowing smirk, she had also hated the theory parts of the first year, even though her education had been more practical because of the war.

"Haha, very funny. And do you have to call me a brat all the time?" He said with a glare. Akira started chuckling at that, he really was easy to tease.

"Yep, I really do, you know, because it fits. Well then, don't let me delay you! Go on to your glorious adventure to become a ninja! And try not to fall asleep!" She said as she walked off towards the kitchen to get her own breakfast. Naruto finished putting on his sandals and started towards the door.

"Thanks a lot… Well then, I'm off!" He yelled before opening the door and started running towards the academy.

Akira made her breakfast and ate in a slow pace. After she was done she made a clone to do the dishes before heading out to watch TV, she found that she kept getting distracted by how quiet the place though. With Naruto around there was always SOME noise around the house. Now that she was alone she was starting to grow incredibly bored with the silence.

'Okay, this is ridiculous. He's been here for 1 week and I'm already starting to get used to having him around. I got to figure out something to do.' She thought. She considered training for a bit, but that would only keep her occupied for so long. 'Maybe I should go hang out in the jōnin lounge… There should be someone I know there. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, better than sitting here at least.' She got up and prepared to try and find someone to pass the time with.

* * *

**At the academy**

* * *

Naruto was bored. Insanely bored. He had forgotten just how much Iruka-sensei loved to talk… He was the only teacher that actively helped him, but since he specialized in the theoretical parts of being a ninja, which Naruto both sucked at and disliked in general, made it so he rarely learnt anything useful during those lessons.

'So boooored! Gah! I can't wait until they start teaching us ninjutsu and taijutsu!' He thought as he felt his eyelids grow heavy. 'Urgh. No good, I'm going to fall asleep soon.' It did not take long before Naruto was in la-la land, dreaming about the delicious ramen of Ichiraku Ramen. Unfortunately Iruka noticed he was sleeping.

"Na-ru-to… WAKE UP!" He yelled as he threw a piece of chalk at his forehead.

Naruto yelped as he woke up, and was scolded by Iruka for sleeping in class, Naruto of course was not paying attention to said scolding. The rest of the day passed in a haze for Naruto, the only respite being the weapons lesson since he actually got to do something.

* * *

**Later at Akira's house**

* * *

Akira was bored. By some twist of fate almost everyone she knew seemed to be on a mission, and while she respected Gai and would trust her back to him any day, he was a fucking pain in the ass to hang out with. So the idea to spend her time hanging out with her friends had been a no go.

'Sigh, I need a hobby' She thought as she stared at the roof. As that thought ran through her head, the door to the house opened.

"I'm back." Naruto groaned out, apparently exhausted from his day at the academy. Akira chuckles before answering.

"Hey brat. Welcome home." She says with a small smile. Naruto stands frozen for a while before a grin threatens to split his face.

'Welcome home huh? I really like the sound of that.' He thought happily, for the first time ever, someone had welcomed him when he got home. "Hey Akira! Any idea what we should make for dinner?" He asks

"Hmm… Well, since you like ramen, we could try to make Yakisoba I guess." She says after thinking for a while.

"Huh? What's that? Sounds tasty." He says while drooling slightly at his imagination.

"Noodles fried in a sauce made from soy and oyster sauce and some other things." She answers while standing up and moving towards the kitchen.

"Sounds good! What do you want me to do?" He asks and follows her into the kitchen. Naruto end up cutting the vegetables and Akira takes care of the sauce, dinner passes quickly and they both enjoy the meal. After dinner they decide to play some cards, which makes Akira realize she have to remember never to play for money against the brat unless she intends to cheat.

* * *

**Wednesday, halfway from the Daimyo meeting**

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, was moving along the trees along with his ANBU bodyguards, and although he was old he kept quite a high pace.

'I really don't like leaving Naruto-kun alone in the village when the council is in control, I'm willing to bet they had something to do with the timing of the meeting.' He thought worriedly. He had kept a high pace ever since the meeting finished and Konoha was insured the Daimyo's continued support, he wanted to get back to Konoha as soon as possible so he could check on his surrogate grandson.

"ANBU, I'm going to speed up. I wish to be back in Konoha before dinner!" He called out to his bodyguards.

"Understood, Hokage-sama!" The 4 people following the old Hokage yelled at once. The Hokage nodded once and took off at an even higher speed, and even the ANBU was in awe a bit over just how fast the man could move even had his high age. The man is not known as the 'God of Shinobi' for no reason.

'I hope nothing has happened to you, Naruto-kun.' He thought as he sped through the trees.

* * *

AN: There we go. Now that the training begins there will be a lot more short time skips and just a couple of moments that I either feel are needed or that just pop into my head and force me to write them out.

Akira is already suffering the consequences of the Naruto Effect, as in just a short time he is worming his way into her heart.

I'm not sure when Iruka got over his hatred over Naruto, but in this fic it was before the academy even began and he saw him around the village acting like he used to.

I'm not sure what to do with Sasuke... I don't really mind him, even though I find him to be obsessed with revenge, so I'm not sure if I should maybe change the Uchiha massacre a bit to make it a bit more believable for him to recover. Mental torture for 72 hours straight do have a tendency to fuck someone up after all. Also I don't think Itachi was supposed to be good from the start of the manga, so when Kishimoto decided to make him a hero... Sort of... The original Uchiha massacre was pretty over the top for a "Good guy". Even if I do decide to change it, Sasuke will still be pretty focused on revenge, there will just be a bit higher chance of him moving on.

Jutsu list:

**Suiton: Mizurappa no jutsu **(Water Release: Violent Water Wave/Water Trumpet Technique) - Rank: C, Offensive, Short to Mid range. The user launches a large jet of water from their mouth through their hand like a waterfall. The strength of the technique can be controlled by the amount of chakra poured into the technique.

That's all from me! At least for now. Have a nice day! Bye! Oh! I almost forgot, I will put a brief insight on Akira's stats in my profile soon. Now I'm done. Cya!


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Hello, it's me again! If someone is wondering about the regularity of updates, well... It mostly depends on how much I find that distracts me from writing, or if I get stuck. The only thing I can really promise is that I will try to update once a week, as long as people stay interested in what I write of course.

Review Response:

God-ShadowEx100: Your comment doesn't have anything to do with my story as far as I can tell. Naruto is eight at the moment, a kid with other words, he haven't even started fighting anyone. Also he won't be as keen on 'saving the world' with words, he will still dislike killing, preferring to solve things with different means, but he will still kill people if he figures there's no other way. And your comment about the girls also have no basis, however the hatred you feel towards Hinata and the fact you'd actually wish for her to be raped, even though there's people who kill themselves after being subjected to that, makes me believe you should probably find a psychiatrist so you won't do something you can't take back.

**I do not own Naruto**

* * *

**Secrets and Dreams**

Five blurs rapidly made their way towards the massive gates of Konoha as the evening started to drift in, when they were fairly close the group slowed down as not to spook the guards. Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane, The Eternal Chūnin Duo, was standing guard as usual with Kotetsu looking bored and Izumo just relaxing at the easy job. Both jerked to attention when the group appeared 250 meters away, they relaxed when they noticed the unmistakable Hokage robes and hat as well as the masks of Konoha ANBU.

"Welcome back Hokage-sama." Izumo said when the group reached the gate and he reached for the papers to verify the group's identities. "You are here earlier than expected, I trust the meeting went well?"

"Thank you, Izumo-kun, and yes, the meeting went well. Did anything unusual happen in the village during my absence?" The aged Hokage asked with a small smile.

"No, things have been quiet." Kotetsu said with a sigh, not that he disliked when things were peaceful, but it was just so boring.

"Heh, well let's hope things stay that way." The Hokage said with a chuckle. "Well I must be going. Have a nice evening, Izumo-kun, Kotetsu-kun." He said as he started walking through the gates. He made his way towards the poorer parts of Konoha with a light frown on his face.

'The council really shouldn't have been allowed to place Naruto-kun here… This area is not fit for a child that young to live in alone. Damn you Tobirama! You should never have allowed them this much freedom.' He thought with a sigh. He kept walking and nodded his head in acknowledgement to the smiles and greetings he received from the villagers. He reached Naruto's apartment complex and made his way up the stairs, when he reached the top of the stairs he froze and almost stopped breathing. The door was still broken down and there was even more graffiti than when Naruto left. The Hokage entered the apartment and started to frantically look for clues that Naruto was all right.

'This can't be happening! How could things go this far? Naruto-kun… Please be okay…' He thought while looking around. He found no tracks that indicated had been there for a while and he was growing more and more frantic. 'Wait. I need to calm down, the crystal ball, I can use it to find where Naruto-kun is!' And with that thought he hurried towards the Hokage Tower. Unlike before he rushed over the roofs to avoid traffic and attention, when he reached the tower he entered his office and barely acknowledged his secretary when she told him it was good to see him. As he rushed to his desk and pulled out the crystal ball and focused on Naruto's chakra signature several thoughts ran through his head, making him more and more worried. There were so many possibilities of what could have happened, he could have been kidnapped, he could be dead, or starving in a ditch, forced to rummage through the garbage looking for food or maybe Tortured! Maybe even worse! Maybe he was… Cutting vegetables? The old man blinked, and then blinked again. He studied the crystal ball a bit longer before coming to the conclusion that yes, Naruto was indeed cutting vegetables together with what seemed to be one of his Elite Jōnin, that was not what he was expecting, but damn if it wasn't a much better option he thought with a smile.

* * *

**Akira's house some time later**

* * *

Naruto and Akira had sat down to eat while having some small talk. After a while there was a sound similar to that of bells signaling that there was someone at the gate. Akira stood up and walked over to the door before channeling chakra into a crystal ball in the wall next to the door and an identical crystal on top of the gate started to shine. When the image between the two crystals connected she had to blink several times, there, standing outside the gates was the elderly Hokage himself. She stood frozen for a second before swiping some blood on a seal to open the gate and opened the door and waited for the man to reach it.

"Hokage-sama" She said with a respectful nod once he was close enough.

"There's no need to be so formal Akira-kun." He said with a smile.

"Jiji, is that you? You're back?" Sounded Naruto's excited voice from the kitchen followed by rapid footsteps and soon a grinning Naruto was standing there. The Hokage smiled at the boy.

"Hello Naruto-kun, how are you doing today?" He asked. "No problem at the academy I hope.

"Hi Jiji! I'm fine, but the academy is boring. All we have now is a bunch reading and to learn to access our chakra along with chakra control." Naruto said with a grimace. "It's really boring, chakra is cool and all but we haven't gotten to learn a jutsu yet, so we can't even use it"

"Don't worry Naruto-kun, you will begin learning the three academy jutsus after the Christmas vacation, along with taijutsu. I think you will find that a bit more interesting." Hiruzen said with a chuckle. Akira had stood by and watched the interaction up until this point decided to cut in.

"We were about to eat just now, and there's enough for you if you'd like to join us?" She offered.

"Oh! Yeah, come on Jiji! We made Sukiyaki, and I helped so it's awesome, dattebayo!" Naruto said at that and ran back towards the kitchen. The two adults looked at him as he ran away with an amused expression.

"Well, I had intended to take him out for ramen so I haven't eaten yet, so if it's fine with you I'd be glad to join." Hiruzen said looking at Akira.

"You're very welcome to eat with us, like I said." She said with a smile before adding. "In fact it's an honor to have the God of Shinobi over for dinner." With that both chuckled went and sat down at the table. Dinner passed pretty quickly with Naruto describing what Akira had been teaching him and how boring the academy was right now with the Hokage listening with amused attention. However after they had eaten there was a question that needed to be answered.

"Naruto-kun, before I came here I visited your apartment." Hiruzen started and Naruto seemed to freeze for a second. "Could you tell me what happened?" He said with concern. Naruto was silent for a while before answering.

"I don't know. I got chased by some drunks on my birthday and had to run, the ANBUs that was watching didn't stop them so I had to try and loose them in one of the training fields. I managed to do that, but when I got back to my apartment it was destroyed. That's when I met Akira and she let me stay here until it could be fixed." He said, a bit sad now that the apartment would be fixed. Hiruzen had an angry and sad look on his face, he hadn't thought it would get this bad just because he wasn't around. But Naruto wasn't completely done yet, there was something he wanted an answer to as well.

"Hey Jiji… Why do they hate me so much? What did I ever do to them? It can't be my pranks, because they hated me before I even started with them… Do you know why they act like this?" Naruto said with a small and sad voice. The anger on Hiruzen's face disappeared and the sadness got more noticeable, as he opened his mouth to say he didn't know Akira suddenly interrupted him.

"Hey brat, I need to talk to Hokage-sama for a bit. Could you wait in your room for a short while?" She said while looking at Hiruzen. Naruto looked between them a few times before nodding and running off. When they heard the door close she opened her mouth.

"He deserves to know." She said without ever breaking eye contact with the old man. He just sighed and rubbed his temples before answering.

"I don't to burden him with the truth yet, he deserves a normal childhood. I don't want him to believe he is what he contains." He said, he had had this discussion before. Akira just gave a bitter laugh.

"It's too late for that old man. Your law forbids people from assaulting him or telling the kids about the truth, but it doesn't stop them from giving him names or telling their kids to stay away from him. Face it, your plan failed. He has no friends, and the teachers except Iruka ignore him at the academy. All his things were destroyed so he had to replace them. Apparently his jumpsuit cost as much as what all his new clothes, books, kunai and shuriken set cost together, meaning that they overprice everything he buys. It wouldn't surprise me if that's what made him love ramen so much, they are the only place that don't overcharge him in that area." She said while looking at the old man. There was shame in his eyes. She sighed before continuing. "Look, sooner or later he will figure it out, either by connecting the dots or someone will finally break your law where he can hear it. You know as well as me that it's just a matter of time. Who do you think he'd rather hear it from? Someone he cares for, or someone who will make it sound like he's the Kyūbi reborn."

Hiruzen could see the truth in that. He knew it was just a matter of time before something happened, but he still didn't want to tell him yet. But could he really afford to wait? If he did the damage could be severe, and how much time did he have before the truth got out, and what form would the truth come in? And another question that he couldn't ignore was there as well, would Naruto forgive him for keeping it a secret?

Akira could see the various emotions flickering across his face, she wasn't 100% sure this would be the best thing either, but she didn't think they could afford to keep the truth from the boy much longer anyway, since the results could be much worse.

"You can't delay it much further. This time it wasn't some angry words or a hate filled glares, they tried to attack him and trashed his apartment. You can't be certain you won't have to leave the village again for some reason, and that time it might not end as lucky as this time did." She said after a while. Hiruzen looked torn for a few minutes before closing his eyes with a sigh. He gave a weary nod to show that he agreed. Akira nodded and stood up and went to get Naruto. When she returned with Naruto he couldn't help but notice the rather tense atmosphere in the air which made him nervous. Hiruzen took a deep breath to steady himself.

"Naruto-kun. There is something you should know. I will start with a simple question, how much do you know about the Kyūbi?" Hiruzen said after a while.

"Huh? Umm… Not much. It attacked 8 years ago and the Yondaime Hokage killed it, but he also died because of it." Naruto said a bit confused with the question.

"I'm afraid that is not entirely correct. You see, the kyūbi is a being known as a bijū, and a bijū cannot be killed because they are just a mass of chakra with a conscience, even if you manage to destroy them they will just reform after a while." Hiruzen said.

"Huh? But if that's true then how is Konoha still here? Wouldn't kyūbi have destroyed it when he came back?" Naruto said but he was starting to have a bad feeling when he remembered some things he had heard. 'Monster, murderer, demon brat.' Hiruzen's heart clenched when he saw the growing fear in the boys eyes, but continued.

"The only way to stop a bijū is by sealing it, however, the kyūbi is the strongest bijū and cannot be sealed into a lifeless object, it must be sealed into a living person, one young enough to adapt to its malicious chakra, the younger the better." When Hiruzen said that it all fell into place for Naruto, the reason he was hated and why it always got worse on his birthdays as well as the seal on his stomach.

"My birthday is October 10… The same day that kyūbi attacked… I'm the kyūbi…" He said with a low and sad voice. Hiruzen opened his mouth to deny it, but Akira was quicker.

"Don't be an idiot brat. I would never have let you into my house if I believed there was even a chance that you were the kyūbi." She said with a glare. Naruto flinched and her face softened. "Hey, Naruto. Remember how I stored your things when I went shopping for you?" She asked with a kind voice. When Naruto nodded she kept going. "I stored them in a scroll. You remember how I unsealed the items and then sealed them again right? Did the scroll ever change?"

Naruto thought about it for a while, the scroll had been the same, right? Nothing really changed even though the items inside was bigger than the scroll itself. Akira saw Naruto was calming down and continued with the explanation.

"You are the scroll, the kyūbi is the item sealed inside you. In a way the kyūbi is a prisoner and you are the prison and its warden. Don't ever let anyone convince you otherwise." She said as she pulled him into a hug. Naruto was tense at first, the only hugs he had gotten was the ones he initiated with the old man. But he quickly relaxed and hugged back, he liked the feeling. Naruto just stood there, trying to figure out what he was feeling, and the adults seemed to be fine waiting until he took the initiative. After standing there for about 5 minutes he spoke.

"If I'm not the kyūbi, why does everybody hate me?" He said. Both Hiruzen and Akira sighed at that.

"Because there's a saying. A person is smart, but people are stupid. After the kyūbi's attack everyone was scared and in a state of panic, when they found out the kyūbi was sealed inside of you some people saw you as the beast reborn. And because of their fear others started to think the same, and this just kept repeating itself until the majority thought the same thing." Hiruzen said with a sad voice. "The Yondaime wanted you to be seen as a hero, but as you can see, that did not happen." Naruto looked even sadder at that. How was he ever going to be Hokage if everyone saw him as the kyūbi?

"So I'm never going to be accepted? They will always hate me?" He said with tears in his eyes. Akira tightened her arms around him a little bit before answering.

"You will. The same rule works in reverse as well. The more people that manage to think for themselves instead of listening to the majority the faster this will spread as well. And it's already started, you got Iruka, Teuchi and Ayame, the old man and me. Also didn't you say there are several ANBU that usually help you? I doubt they see you as the kyūbi either. It might take years, but keep this in mind. Whose opinion really matters? The random people on the street, or the ones you actually know that care for you?" She said as she removed his arms and took his hands before kneeling down to make eye contact and gave him a small smile. After a while Naruto returned the smile and got a little happier. He now knew why people didn't like him, and it was something really big and really hard to swallow, but he also knew that there are those that know the truth and didn't care. In a weird way, it was better than not knowing you had a giant monster fox that almost destroyed your home sealed in your gut. When Naruto looked a bit better Akira stood up still holding his hands.

"Are you okay now? Or is there something you want me to try and explain a bit more in depth?" She said while making calming movements with her thumbs on the back of his hands. Naruto thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion he didn't have any more questions, which was weird, he felt like he should have tons of question. But right now, all he wanted was to take his time to really come to terms with the fact he had a monster fox sealed inside him. So he just shook his head after a while.

"Okay. Do you want to sit down? Maybe watch some TV while you sort things out? Sometimes distractions are actually helpful, it keeps you from thinking too hard on things." She said with a small smile. Naruto also smiled before nodding, a distraction might actually be just what he needed.

The trio sat down in the living room and just talked about small things while watching the TV, no one really registering what was really happening on it. However as it got late, Hiruzen had to leave, the Hokage couldn't be away from his office all the time, no matter how much he would like to he joked. As he was standing up to leave he had one thing left to say.

"Naruto-kun, I will start working on having your apartment fixed. It should only take about a week before it's done." Hiruzen said. At these words Naruto started looking down, in a week he would be alone again. He wasn't even sure he would be able to meet Akira again either. Said person noticed the change in Naruto's mood and quickly realized the reason. She lightly bit her lower lip before thinking the situation through.

'I don't really think the kid being alone this soon after the bomb would be a good idea. There must be some other options.' She thought with a frown as she tried to think about what to do. 'Hokage-sama would be glad to have him, but if it was that simple he would have taken him in years ago. Probably something about the Hokage not being allowed to play favorites, and I know they keep putting stops in Kakashi's attempts to get custody of him… If only he was a ninja already, then the old man would be able to do so much more for him without the council's involvement.' Then a thought struck her and she blinked.

She owned the land her house was built on, she had saved the money from her S ranks to be able to buy it. She basically had clan status here except she wasn't allowed a seat on the ninja council. And if she had the Hokage's permission she could take him in as a student of sorts, making it a ninja matter and putting him under the Hokage's direct supervision, and since she wasn't in an actual clan she didn't have to worry about any political backlash either. And she kinda liked having him around, he made things interesting and less quiet around the house, and training him would actually give her something to do when she was bored. Having decided she should at least put the offer up for consideration she nodded.

"Excuse me, Hokage-sama, but I might be able to offer another option." She said, grabbing the old man's attention. "I've kinda grown used to having him around, and if he's fine with it I could let him stay here, with your permission of course." Naruto's face shot up and he had a hopeful look in his eyes as he looked over at the old man. Hiruzen looked sad for a moment as he opened his mouth.

"As an orphan, Naruto falls under the civilian councils supervision, the-" He started before being interrupted.

"Actually, since I own the land here I pretty much got clan status even if I don't have a spot on the council. If you were to give me permission to train him that would make him a ninja prospect instead of a civilian academy student giving you control of what happens to him." Akira cut in. The old man blinked once, twice, before a grin started spreading on his face. He had completely forgotten about land owners having certain rights.

"Hmm, I had forgotten about that, the rights of a land owner are very rarely brought up after all. Well if that's the case there's only one thing left." He said as he turned his head to make eye contact with Naruto. "Naruto-kun, would you like to go back to your apartment, or stay with Akira-kun?" He asked with a smile, already knowing what the boy would answer, as his face threatened to split in half because of the huge smile he had.

"Do even you even have to ask, dattebayo?! Of course I want to stay with Akira!" He yelled happily, if there was one thing he had always hated it was coming home to find his apartment empty. Now he had a chance to never have to feel that emptiness again, even if Akira wasn't home it would still be different! "You will really let me stay?!"

"It's like I said, you've kinda grown on me" She said with a shrug, even though her lips curled into a smile. "And it might actually be interesting to teach you a few things now that I got time to properly tort- I mean train you." She had a slightly evil glint in her eyes at the last statement, she remembered how much her body hurt when she developed her own taijutsu style, oh yes, this would be fun indeed. Hiruzen had to fight down his own smirk at that, he remembered his own training under Hashirama-sensei and Tobirama-sensei as well, and it was always fun to watch the hopeful ninjas squirm when they realized it was more to being a ninja than 'cool jutsus'. Coughing to banish that thought to the back of his mind he went back to the business at hand.

"Well if both parties are in agreement, I see no reason to object. You have my permission to take care of Naruto-kun." He said with a smile as he thought about the council's reaction when they realized they had been one-upped by the young jōnin. His smile grew a bit bigger, he would have to bring a camera to preserve the moment. He said goodbye and started walking towards the Hokage Tower.

'That went much better than I expected. I'm happy for you, Naruto-kun.' He thought with a smile.

Back at the house Akira and Naruto was still watching TV and small talking. Naruto had taken to sitting right next to her while talking since he liked the body heat, it was pretty obvious that since he was always alone he cherished any kind of positive human contact and Akira didn't seem to mind the eight year old sitting so close anyway. This went on for a few hours before Naruto nodded off, having leaned up against Akira in his sleep. She kept watching for a time before she was starting to nod off as well. Deciding it was late she picked Naruto up and carried him to his room, thinking it was best to let him sleep. Once she put him down on the bed and pulled the comforter over him she straightened up and began to walk away, however she stopped and turned when she heard a soft whimper. Naruto's forehead was creased and his lips were pressed together into a thin line, it would seem he was having a nightmare.

'Not surprising considering what we told him I guess.' She thought while eying the sleeping boy for a while, he had been fine until she started leaving. 'Is it because he doesn't want to be alone right now? It's worth a shot at least.' With that thought she went back to the bed and lay down on top of the bed, not bothering getting underneath the comforter. As if drawn towards her body heath the boys small arm wrapped around her stomach and pulled he pulled himself closer to her, his features easing up almost instantly. She looked at him for a while before putting her arm under her head as a makeshift pillow and closed her eyes and started drifting off to sleep.

* * *

**Naruto's dream**

* * *

He had been comfortable, but then it felt like a presence left and the whole world changed. He was standing in a world of darkness except for a white area where he was standing, his shadow was stretched on the floor in front of him. He could see shadows morphing, taking human shapes. He knew who they were, they were the people who hated him. They stood there glaring at him with fear, distrust, disgust, and hatred, so much hatred. They were everywhere, as far as he could see. He could see his shadow shifting as whispers could be heard from all around him.

_Monster!_

"How can the Hokage let that thing stay?!" he heard as his shadow seemed to morph, taking a more animalistic appearance as he clenched his fists.

_Demon!_

"He should be banished, he can't be allowed to endanger us anymore!" his knuckles turned white as he clenched harder and his shadow turned into a fox with nine tails and started growing.

_Murderer!_

"It should be executed! It doesn't deserve to exist!" his shadow grew larger, and the mouth shifted into a huge sharp toothed grin as his hands started shaking and bleeding from his palms.

_The Kyūbi no Kitsune!_

He could hear a booming laughter, dripping with hatred and power as his shadow grew enormous and he felt cold.

Then the presence came back, and other figures started to appear, standing right behind him.

The old man, wearing his Hokage robes and hat with a grandfatherly smile, who had always let him stay in his office if he was bored, who had always supported his dream and never made fun of it.

Teuchi and Ayame, who had always fed him and made him feel welcome no matter if he could afford to pay them right away for his ramen.

Iruka-sensei, the only one in the academy who would always help him if he asked, even if his lessons are boring.

A man with gravity defying gray hair and a dog mask together with 3 other masked figures, who always helped him whenever he was in trouble.

A scarred man in a black trench coat who looked at him with something resembling respect when he met his eyes.

And then Akira, whom he'd only met by chance. She had taught him how to cook, about seals and how to tell when he was being ripped off. And now she had offered to teach him to be a ninja and allowed him to live with her.

As the figures behind him smiled at him, he felt a warmth spread in his stomach. The people around him faded until only the ones smiling was left, and his shadow morphed, until it was his own again.

He smiled and tried to get closer to the warming presence. The rest of his dreams a lot happier than before.

* * *

AN: This one was a lot harder to write, since I wanted to get the whole Kyūbi part over with and have Naruto start training seriously so I can catch up to canon. I probably forced it to go along, however seeing how well he handled the news in canon with MIZUKI telling him the truth, it should be possible for him to take things this well.

Next chapter will probably speed things up a bit so we can get to graduation. Until next time! Bye!


	5. Chapter 5

AN: I'm back, and I'm sorry it's a late upload, I was supposed to upload it Saturday but because of a storm I haven't had any power until today, so nothing much I could do. I will try to upload the next chapter sooner because of this.

The lack of electricity was a bit of a problem since it happened while I was writing, around 3 or 4 times before it disappeared for good, making the chapter rather choppy, but it's mostly a filler anyway to let me get into canon. Anyway, let's get on with this!

**I do not own Naruto**

**Resolutions and training**

Naruto was comfortable, very comfortable. So comfortable in fact that he felt like never waking up. He had his arms wrapped around a huge pillow that radiated warmth, and for some reason this warmth made him feel happy as well, something he didn't feel all that often.

'Wait! Since when did I have a pillow this big anyway?' He suddenly thought and opened his eyes. When he had blinked the sleep out of his eyes he tried to figure out what he was hugging. When he was able to focus his eyes and studied what he was currently hugging he first saw dark cloth, when he raised his gaze higher he saw a well-trained but not muscular arm followed by a head with gray hair. Here it took a while for his brain to figure out what was happening, because waking up next to someone, that was definitely a first for him. When his brain caught up with what was happening he realized it was Akira, but why she was in his bed? No idea. Although he liked the warmth he decided that moving away would be the best action since he didn't know how she would react to him being there, but when he started moving differently than when he was sleeping one dark green eye immediately snapped open and caught his. He stopped moving and just froze. Akira looked at him for a while before she started sitting up.

"Morning brat. Did you sleep well?" She said as she swung her legs off the bed and stood up and stretched her arms and neck and gave a grunt of satisfaction when her joints seemed to snap into place. This snapped Naruto out his stupor and he sat up.

"Uhh, good morning, and I slept fine. Why were you in my bed?" He asked while scrunching up his face and tilting his head in a confused manner.

"You started having a nightmare when I put you to bed, I figured you wouldn't want to be alone after what we told you last night so I stayed." She said as she walked towards the door. "I'm going to change and start with breakfast."

Naruto flinched a bit when he was reminded of the kyūbi and the dream, but he also remembered the end with the people that treated him like a person.

'So the presence was Akira huh.' He thought. "Hey Akira." He waited until she turned her head a bit before continuing. "Thanks... For staying I mean. It felt nice." He said embarrassed, as he really didn't know what to say about this situation. Akira just nodded at him before continuing to walk towards the door.

"You're welcome." She said before going out the door.

Naruto looked at the door for a while before getting out of bed and changing clothes, as he was still dressed the same as the day before. He went to the bathroom and got a shower while going over everything he had learned and that had happened just yesterday.

'Funny how much can change in a day. Yesterday I had no idea why I was hated, and now I know it's because I have a huge ass fox in my stomach…" He thought sadly, no one likes to know they have a monster inside of them. But he had also realized that the people that didn't care was even more precious to him than before, since he now knew just how rare they would be… That was a depressing thought, that people who cared for him would be incredible rare for something he had never done or wanted in the first place. That thought made him quite angry, and then he thought about what the old man said about people being stupid. 'Well if they don't want to look past the fox, screw them. I know what's going on now and I don't care what you idiots think, I got people that see the truth and they are enough for me.' He thought with a nod. He wouldn't strive for attention from people who he didn't really need anyway, he would find the ones that could see through all the rumors and stick with them, like Teuchi, Ayame-nee-san, Iruka, Sandaime-jiji and Akira. He would get strong and protect Konoha, so the ones that could see him for him would be safe, that the others would be safe as well would be more like a side effect until they could start thinking on their own.

* * *

**With Akira in the Kitchen**

* * *

"I'LL DO THIS, DATTEBAYO!" Akira jumped at the loud declaration coming from the bathroom and she turned to stare in that direction for a while, she then shook her head and went back to making breakfast, sometimes not knowing is the better option. After about 10 minutes Naruto came in and sat at the table as she put the food on the table. They ate in silence and afterwards Naruto started doing the dishes. Akira sat at the table and looked at him.

"I trust you remember everything about last night?" She asked after a while. When she got a nod she continued. "And you're fine? There's nothing you want to know?" Naruto stopped scrubbing the dishes and made what Akira had dubbed his 'thinking face', it was kinda cute.

"You and the old man were talking about being a ninja-something, something about you training me?" He said with a hint of excitement in his voice as he turned to face her. Akira nodded at that.

"Yep, although you probably won't be this happy about that once we get started." She said with a slightly evil smile and a glint in her eye that scared him a bit. "My training will be so tough you will call it torture, so I hope you're ready for this." Naruto started grinning and straightened up and hit his chest.

"Hah! Bring it! I can take anything you throw at me and get up for more, dattebayo!" He boasted, he almost took it back right then and there when Akira's smile grew into a grin.

"Yes, this will be fun indeed." She whispered in a way that promised pain. "Well, enough of that. I need time to fix some things but I should be able to start later today. And you should probably start moving towards the academy unless you want to be late." She continued in a more normal tone. Naruto glances at the clock and quickly finishes the dishes before rushing towards the door. He puts his sandals on before opening the door and yelling.

"I'm off!"

"Yeah yeah, see you later brat." She answers offhandedly and Naruto runs out of the door. After he was gone she started thinking about what she would need to teach him, because if she was going to teach, she was going to make him the best damn ninja of his generation.

'Let's see… Well, for starters, I guess some mental tortu- training is in order.' She thought with a grin as she started getting things ready. Oh this would be a fun 4 years indeed.

* * *

**Akira's house after the academy, training field**

* * *

Naruto stood before Akira, who was holding some kind of contraption made out of ninja wire and straps with seals on.

"Right, before we even start I'm going to warn you. What I say goes, if I tell you to do anything, you will do it." Akira started with a serious voice and starting him dead in the eyes. "I don't care if you think it's stupid, feel free to complain, but complain while doing it because you WILL do it. If you don't do it, I won't teach you. Ever." She continued with finality. Naruto gulped and started nodding furiously, he was NOT going to mess this up. She gave him a nod before continuing. "I will not spoon feed you everything, I will give you what you need to do the task I give you, but I will be here if you need advice, but you need to learn to analyze the task given to find the purpose. Now, strip."

'crickets sounds in the background.'

"Umm. Come again?" He said in a very confused voice.

"Strip, down to your underwear." She said with a mischievous smile. "This is one of the things where you will do as I say by the way." Naruto removes his clothes with a very confused, and embarrassed, face and is soon standing in just his ramen bowl boxers. She looks him over, actually quite surprised that his diet hasn't done more damage to his body, must be the fox. After that she takes the wire and strap contraption and starts to attach it to his body. While she does that Naruto is standing rigid and very uncomfortable at this point, as she is fastening and tugging at the various straps and wires, seemingly without caring what position he's in. After a good 15 minutes the contraption is attached properly and Akira backs up telling him to put his clothes back on.

"What was that for, dattebayo?" Naruto asks with a red face. "It was embarrassing as hell!" She just smirks at him.

"Ah, that will be answered now. It's time for your first lesson." She says with a mirthful voice. At this Naruto perks up and opens his mouth to start asking questions about what 'cool things' he was going to learn, but Akira stops him before he can start and walks behind him. She lowers his jacket so a seal near his neck is visible and puts a finger on it.

"Today's lesson," She channel some chakra into the seal. "Is to stand up." Naruto's body retracts into a fetal position and collapses on the ground and he lets out a loud gasp.

"What?! What did you do me, dattebayo! What's going on?!" He yells panicked. Akira steps back and walk out onto the pond nearby and puts her hand together.

"Don't worry. That contraption under your clothes puts weight on certain muscles and will stop you from moving if you try to use certain wrong muscles. My fighting style is quite complicated and unpredictable, but it is also very surgical, and if you build your muscles wrong, it won't work nearly as well." She says as she begins working on her water manipulation. "The purpose of this is to make it subconscious to use the correct muscles, since even if you use all the right muscles together with even 1 wrong muscle, you can't move." She explains. "So like I said, todays lesson, is to learn how to stand up from the ground. Good luck!" She says with a happy voice, even though she had come up with this exercise herself, she had hated every moment of it since it was so humiliating. Naruto had started to get his panic attack under control and begun trying to move, with no success.

'Come on! I'll finish this stupid exercise so fast she won't even know what happened, dattebayo!' He thought, wanting to get out of this embarrassing situation. However no matter how much he tried he couldn't budge. 'This is going to be a long day…'

* * *

**Several hours later**

* * *

After hours of Akira making jokes and comments about his struggles, no dinner with Akira eating while sitting on the pond and very little change to his situation, Naruto had just one thought about Akira. She's a fucking sadist. And the only thing that could be said about this evening was – Hell. He could now move his arms and legs for a limited amount, however his muscles would freeze when he tried to stand up and he would collapse.

'At least she told me to stop trying to force it and try to find which muscles I'm allowed to move first…' He thought bitterly, before she had said that he hadn't had any progress at all. He took a deep breath and tried to 'feel' his muscles move as Akira had described it, and when he concentrated enough he really could feel the slight shifts in his muscles when he tried to move. He slowly moved his body, careful not to shift to fast or in any way that he could feel resisting his movement. 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5, 15, 20 minutes, 20 minutes and he had yet to manage to stand all the way up, even though he had yet to fall down. His muscles screamed under the pressure as the contraption weighted him down as well as force him to move in a way he wasn't used to, but he was slowly straightening up. Another 5 minutes and he was standing straight while panting as if he had drowning. When his breathing calmed down he became aware of a slow clapping coming closer, and as he turned his head he could see Akira walking towards him with a proud smile. Proud, not even the old man had shown that he was proud of him for something he had done, his strength of character yes, but not his actions, only kindness and sympathy. His back straightened a bit more now when someone was proud over one of his achievements.

"Very good. I had actually thought we would have to do this more before you managed to stand up." She said with the smile still there. "You did great brat." With that she channeled more chakra into the seal on his neck to deactivate the contraption. "So, how do you feel?" She said and a bit of mirth tinted her voice. Naruto may have been happy she was proud of him but that didn't stop him from glaring at her.

"Like hell. My whole body hurts, dattebayo!" He yelled. It didn't help that she started laughing when he said that.

"Sorry, but you will see how much it helps later on. I used the same thing when I started but since I'm used to move like that by now I don't even notice it, I just use it every now and then to make sure I haven't relearned any bad habits though." She said waving her hands defensively. "Now, I sent a clone to get you some ramen from Ichiraku's since I figured you deserved a treat." When she said that any negative emotions the boy had disappeared and he wanted to cheer, if his body didn't hurt so much. They made their way to the kitchen and waited, which didn't take very long. 15 bowls later Naruto looked like he was in heaven while he patted his belly.

"That was delicious. I can almost forgive you for the humiliation earlier" He said with a small glare in Akira's direction, to which she just grinned.

"Aww, don't be such a cry baby. And here I was going to help you get rid of the muscle pains." She said still grinning. Naruto glared a bit more before shrugging and moving on. It turns out that the way Akira would help with his muscles was by having a clone giving him a massage before sending him into the hot springs, and while it didn't get rid of all the pain it made it bearable. However any good will she had scored was instantly crushed when she activated the contraption again when he was in bed. Apparently it would help with his subconscious learning and actions, he just thought she wanted to torture him.

This training/torture kept going in the same pace for about a month, and he was slowly getting used to moving the way he was supposed to and was now required to have the contraption activated at all times around the house. Naruto had gotten comfortable around the house and had even taking to calling Akira 'Akira-nee-chan' which had been quite awkward the first time it slipped out, but both had adopted to the new name rather quickly. They had started some light exercise and weapon throwing, and Naruto had realized that Mizuki was interfering with his progress. Everything he had taught him was wrong, but not by that much, just enough to make it nearly impossible for him to do things right when it came to throwing weapons.

Flashback

Iruka had come over with Naruto after eating ramen at Ichiraku's and was now watching Akira train him. He had heard about the weird contraption Akira had him use and was interested to see her methods in other things. When Naruto started throwing his shuriken he noticed that there was something odd about his form, but couldn't figure out what it was caused by. Akira however, figured she could hazard a guess.

"Hey Naruto, why are you using that form for throwing?" She asked, even though she had a hunch as to why, and sure enough. Naruto stopped and turned to look at them a bit confused.

"Huh? Because Mizuki taught me to throw like that." He said, clueless to what he had done wrong for it to be brought up. Akira and Iruka just looked at each other, Iruka having a look of disbelief, sadness and shame in his eyes. His friend was sabotaging a student and he hadn't even noticed. Akira sighed.

"Sorry to say this Naruto, but you should probably ignore what Mizuki teach you from here on out, because that form will make sure you never get any better at throwing weapons when you reach a certain level." She said while locking eyes with him. Disbelief, followed by sadness and finally anger flashed across his face. He gave a bitter chuckle.

"And when we start doing taijutsu he's going to do the same thing, isn't he? All to make things hard for the 'fox brat', great…" He said causing Iruka's eyes to widen and whip towards Akira, who just nods to show he knows about the kyūbi.

"Well you won't use the academy taijutsu style so no harm done there at least, and I can teach you weapons just fine." She said trying to make him think about the positive events instead of the negative ones.

"Yeah, but what's the point of going to the academy when they won't teach me anything." Naruto said bitterly, making Iruka flinch. He didn't like what the others were doing to the boy, even worse, a year ago he would probably have been the same. Shaking his head to get rid of those thoughts, what's done is done, at least he realized the truth before he did something unforgivable.

"I'm in charge of theory and chakra, and I can assure you that I will do my very best to teach you." He said to Naruto getting him a grateful smile return. Naruto seemed to be in thought for a while before he suddenly blinked and started grinning. Both Akira and Iruka looked confused to what he was grinning about.

"Hey, Akira-nee-chan, Iruka-sensei." He said getting their attention. He kept the mischievous grin on his face while continuing. "Didn't you two point out that a ninjas strongest tool is deception?" Both were a bit confused to this question, although Akira started to get the idea, but nodded anyway.

"Yes, the less that is known about your skills in a fight the better, because then you can surprise your opponent." Iruka said causing Naruto's grin to widen.

"And you know the saying 'to fool your enemies you must first fool your allies'?" He said, causing Iruka's eyes to widen in realization and Akira to grin and let out a short laugh.

End Flashback

After that Naruto played the fool while he was in the village, concealing his skills from everyone but the ones he trusted, and he was getting really good at using Akira's teachings to find out if people were trustworthy. Iruka had wanted to report Mizuki to the Hokage instead, but Naruto pointed out that the new teacher could be even worse and the other students would suffer because they would have to familiarize themselves with them all over again, making him reluctantly agree to the plan.

* * *

**February at a secret location**

* * *

The Sandaime Hokage was sitting down in a small room, facing an ANBU in a weasel mask, wearing a serious and tired expression.

"And you are certain we don't have any more time?" He asked tiredly, more because he wanted a miracle to occur and grant him an out. The ANBU shook his head.

"No. I'm sorry Hokage-sama. Shisui had planned to attempt to use a special genjutsu called **Kotoamatsukami **which might have been able to end things peacefully, but he got… intercepted… by ninjas reminiscent of ROOT." The ANBU said in a stoic voice, only faltering when mentioning Shisui's troubles.

'Danzō… You old fool. Your actions have caused this situation… If Shisui had succeeded…' Hiruzen thought as his hands gripped the armrests of his chair. 'I'm going to find enough evidence to have you executed for this, mark my words! Your actions cannot be tolerated any longer!'

"I see… Then Weasel, remove your mask." He said in a resigned voice. The ANBU nodded and removed his mask, revealing the face of Uchiha Itachi. The old man sighed and seemed to slump in his seat, he had given orders he knew would get his people killed, but never before had he given an order for someone to kill their own clansmen and kin. He gave a heavy sigh.

"Are you absolutely certain this is the only way left, Itachi-kun?" He almost pleaded, even if he knew it was the truth.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. The Uchiha Rebellion is almost ready. Their actions will bring a civil war that could trigger the Fourth Shinobi World War. I cannot let this happen." Itachi said with a stoic voice.

'If only I had noticed what was happening sooner, I could have done something!' Hiruzen thought. "And you're certain you can perform the deed? This is not your standard mission even by ANBU standards, neither physically nor mentally." He asked after a while, almost hoping he would say no.

"I will do what must be done to prevent my clan from starting a war for foolish reasons." Itachi said stoically.

"… And Sasuke-kun? Would you be able to kill Sasuke?" Hiruzen asked after a pause, this question got a response. Pain, Sadness and although it was well hidden, hesitation. Itachi didn't answer verbally and just nodded. Hiruzen studied the young man, way too young to have to do this. Then he nodded, as if he had made a decision.

"Very well. Uchiha Itachi. As your Hokage I order you to kill anyone inside the Uchiha Compound for treason. I want the deed carried out tonight!" There was no need to stall, the plan had been there just in case for quite a while.

"It will be done, Hokage-sama." Came the stoic reply and Itachi disappeared in a puff of smoke. When he was alone Hiruzen seemed to slump even more and gave another heavy sigh. Why had things come to this? He had no answer, and he didn't think he would ever find a satisfactory one. Steeling his features with resolve he stood from his seat, he only had one thing left to do.

A couple hours after the meeting as the sun was starting to set, Uchiha Sasuke was making his way home from training to catch up to his older brother. However a figure was watching from the rooftops as the boy was running towards the Uchiha district. A quick set of hand seals and the young boy suddenly changed direction running into a nearby park. Another set of hand seals later and the boy was fast asleep under a large tree.

'This is the least I can do for you, Itachi-kun.' Thought Sarutobi Hiruzen as he studied the sleeping boy, who would not be found until morning. And just before midnight, a grateful Itachi would leave the village, tears of both anguish and gratitude streaming down his cheeks. He had not been forced to kill his brother, he was not certain he would have even been able to bring himself into performing the deed anyway, and he was certain whom he had to thank for this tiny piece of light in this nightmare.

'Thank you, Hokage-sama' He thought, as he left the village he had loved enough to destroy his own clan to save.

* * *

**After the massacre**

* * *

Konoha was in an uproar, one of its most prestigious clans, the Uchiha, had been wiped out in one night, by one of their own. Young Sasuke had been found in the morning sleeping in the park, this had been a blessing with all the chaos going on, that fate would save at least one of the precious clan. Sasuke had first refused to believe that his brother could do such a thing, but had slowly come to the realization that this was real, it wasn't just some bad dream, and if he hadn't fallen asleep in the park… He'd be dead too. He hadn't taken the news well as one could expect.

* * *

**Events following the massacre**

* * *

Once things had calmed down life in Konoha went on as normal. Naruto was training with Akira trying to learn how to move freely even with the device messing with his muscle, and he had reached a level where he was now wearing it all the time and it barely interfered with him. Akira had begun to teach him in both chakra control now that he had learned the academy basic jutsus, except the **Bunshin no Jutsu**, that was proving to be impossible for him to get right. Akira said this had to do with the amount of chakra, according to her, she had enough chakra to put a Hokage to shame and had barely been able to create a proper clone, and he had enough chakra to put Her to shame, and had promised to teach him a solid clone to use instead when she thought he was ready. She also taught him several complex movements that were even harder to perform without his muscles locking down. Naruto had his first birthday at Akira's house, and he loved every moment of it. His birthday had rarely been something to look forward too, since the kyūbi festival seemed to have the unintended effect of people getting drunk and trying to hurt the boy, physically or mentally, and while the Hokage always made sure to have extra guards around on this day there was always a little bit of problem. However, Akira's house is almost impossible to sneak into, so there was no interference from the villagers. Everyone had showed up, even the old man and the ANBU that protected him over the year, with the exception of Weasel. Naruto had been happy as everyone had expected, and for the first time he had seen forward to his next one. And when Akira taught him something awesome the next day things just got better.

Flashback

Naruto and Akira were standing on the training field, and she had told she had something awesome to show him. Naruto was almost bouncing, because other than chakra control, accuracy and physical training he hadn't actually learned anything else, specifically anything cool, not even taijutsu.

"Hey Akira-nee-chan! What are you going to show me?! Is it some cool taijutsu move? To breathe fire or water or anything like that?! Tell me, dattebayo!" He almost screamed in excitement. Akira just stood there waiting for him to calm down first before saying anything.

"You should know by now that I never teach you anything before you calm down, brat." She said, although with a hint of amusement in her eyes. Once he stopped bouncing in place she gave a short nod before she started talking. "This has to do with my taijutsu style. As you might have noticed it is very complex and contains pretty much everything you can do, kicks, punches, grabs, throws and everything in between and beyond. My style actually contains so many different styles that it should be impossible to do, and it really is impossible to learn without training pretty much 20 years straight." At this she stopped and waited for the explosions from Naruto… However… Much to her surprise it never came. Naruto just stood there staring, waiting for her to continue.

"Umm… Didn't you hear the whole impossible to learn part?" She asks, a bit disappointed with the lack of a reaction. She had looked forward to him blowing up. Naruto started grinning his foxy smile.

"And we both know you wouldn't waste time training me if what you're teaching can't be done. You would much rather train or something than babysit someone. And you mastered it, so there must be some trick to it." He said causing Akira to glare at him, he ruined her fun damn it!

"Damn brat. Well you're correct. I'm going to show you the trick on how to master this. Usually you wouldn't have the chakra to do something like this for years, but I guess the fox is more than just your pet medic-nin, it gives you tons of chakra as well. I had to get permission from the Hokage to do this, so if you overdo it I'm going to be in tons of trouble." She said and her expression turned from a glare to a look of pure seriousness. That meant whatever she was going to say was very important. "I'm going to teach you a jutsu called **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**, this will solve both your problem with the normal clone as well since this one takes a lot more chakra. However the awesome part of this jutsu is that the copies are solid, and they transfer memories when they dispel."

End Flashback

Naruto had loved the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu **and had learned it in only 5 hours. And even though Akira knew he had more chakra than her, the amount of clones he could make without feeling tired was… Amazing, to say the least. He could make as many clones as she could, and she was over 10 years older than him! And she had more chakra than a Kage! When he was 20 he would be a one man army without a doubt. With his clones he started mastering her taijutsu while his physical workout was upped even more, the use of clones would give him the knowledge but not the actual muscle, giving him the effect of being rusty at fighting. For the next 2 years they would learn this and every 6 months they would spend a month trying to get his body used to fighting at the level it was at.

Akira had let slip that for her way of fighting to work completely he would need a seal that makes your brain work at a higher level, but it was risky and would need a medic-nin of Tsunade Senju's level to even be attempted. Naruto had said he wanted the seal without even hesitating and managed to convince Akira to try it.

Flashback

"Please! I really want to be able to fight like you do, dattebayo! Please Akira-nee-chan! I'll do anything!" Naruto begged while following Akira around. He had done this ever since Akira had let it slip that the reason her style of fighting was a bit different from his was a seal that let her react quicker, which allowed her to be far more aggressive. Akira sighed for what seemed to be the 50:th time.

"Look, I should never have mentioned the seal. There's a reason I haven't given it to you, it's dangerous! Hell, even Orochimaru stopped trying to use it because too many people died, and that says A LOT." She burst out. "Not even the Yondaime could make it safe to use, there's just too much of a strain on the brain that causes brain death. The only reason I'm not dead is luck and the fact that Tsunade-sama was in the village to heal me, and I was still comatose for a month." She explained hoping to calm him down. It didn't work.

"You said it yourself, the damn fox is probably one of the best medic-nins in the world for me, it can do things no doctor or medic-nin could dream of. Shouldn't that make it easier?" Naruto continued without even considering the risks. But he did raise a valid point, Akira thought. The fox could help with the procedure, but the seal would have to be remodeled to take it's chakra into consideration.

"Okay, here's the deal. I'm going to try it." She said making Naruto open his mouth excitedly before she stopped his outburst with a hand. "I will try to change the seal to work with the fox, however, if this doesn't work, you will drop it, and never mention the seal again. Understood?" She said sternly. Naruto nodded his head so fast he should have gotten whiplash. He had no doubt that his Nee-chan could make this work.

End Flashback

Akira had started working on using a jinchūriki's mindscape to lessen the mental strain while the brain adjusted and was actually making progress.

Naruto's taijutsu was increasing by leaps and bounds, and because of the amount of clones he could make his chakra control was also increasing. Because of this Akira had started him on elemental manipulation, he was to master the first 2 steps in Wind manipulation, cutting a leaf and then a boulder with pure chakra, as well as the first step to the other elements. When he had done that he would be taught some ninjutsu, and needless to say, he was incredibly excited.

The next 3 years progressed in the same way, and on his last birthday before graduation he had received the seal Akira used and knew several low level ninjutsus and had even come up with a new **Kage Bunshin no jutu** variant after observing Yamashiro Aoba use the **Sanzengarasu no Jutsu**, the new variant was created by studying the anatomy of a raven and have the clone appear in the shape of the bird able to fly, allowing it to be used for spying since unlike Aoba's jutsu it was still basically a Kage Bunshin and returned it's memories to the user once dispelled. Akira had been very, very impressed when he came up with the idea and had helped him making it possible.

It had been 4 very eventful years, 4 years no one had foreseen when Akira picked Naruto up that day, and now it was time to see the results, tomorrow Naruto was graduating.

* * *

AN: I hope it was okay, like I said it was a bit choppy, and it's also quite rushed, since I wanted to start writing in canon. I think it will be a bit easier than just pretty much writing out of my head.

As you can see I spared Sasuke from the mental torture, this should make it a bit easier to 'save him' later on if I decide to keep him in Konoha. If we compare him to a puzzle, his mind is now broken in 1000 pieces, while with the torture it is more like a 100 000 pieces. Still haven't decided if I actually want to keep him around though.

I also gave the romance some thought, and I got 4 possible pairings that I'm considering right now if I go for it. The choices are -

Tenten: She is quite capable, even though she's useless against a wind user, and there's enough leeway for me to work with her. And I kinda like her overall.

Guren: Since she's from an OVA I can just retcon her, that means no Yukimaro, she will be younger and she will be found by Konoha instead. She does remind me of Anko a bit, maybe Anko picked her up and got a little sister? :P

Fū: She's easy to add and I don't know why, but I always liked her from when she was introduced.

Tayuya: Do I really have to say it? Tayuya is foul mouthed and prone to violence, what's not to like?! :P

I'd like some feedback on these choices if possible, although the decision will still lay with me. On another note I tried to pair Akira with somebody, and I realized something, There Is No Normal Male in Konoha for that age group. There's maybe Iruka, but he's a bit to stiff, so I don't really feel like writing him. So unless everyone got a problem with it, I'm going to pair her with Anko, any reason to write more Anko is a good reason :P

Well that's it. Next chapter will be graduation and the start of Canon events. This should make things a bit easier for me to write and hopefully, more interesting to read. Until next time!


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Oh how fun! My first writers block! Bring the champagne! Or at least something alcoholic, because that was frustrating as hell and I want to get hammered now. I was going for a double chapter but had to cut it short, and I STILL didn't make my own damn deadline! Bah. Moving on.

This chapter might be a bit choppy as well as my writers block messed it up a bit... Sorry about that. It's also a filler since it was supposed to be a double chapter with the second half being the Genin test.

Review response:

Butterflypuss: Thank you! :) It's really nice to know my English is okay :)

Alexnder: You brought up something I had actually forgotten, and is a very valid point as well. I forgot the whole understanding a jinchūriki's feelings since you can't just imagine yourself in that situation. Fū already was one of my favorites and this probably pushed her to the top. It will be a monogamous relationship since it's my first story, and I don't want to make things overly complicated. And don't worry about Naruto being OP, I dislike those situations unless you write your entire story about Naruto steam rolling everything and putting your focus on humor or romance instead, if the protagonist is too strong you end up with everything else falling apart around it. I'm very flattered with the high rating, thank you! And the word count will probably increase once I get used to writing, but not before then ^_^

**I do not own Naruto**

**Pride and Gifts**

The alarm barely had time to start ringing before a hand slammed down and shut it up. Naruto retracted the hand and opened his eyes and grinning.

'After today… I'm going to be a ninja! This is going to be Awesome, dattebayo!' He thought to himself as he jumped out of bed and stretched his body a little. After moving in with Akira his diet had become a lot more varied, although he still had ramen for lunch almost every day, and he was no longer the shortest of his class, he now stood at 150 cm, only slightly shorter than Uchiha Sasuke. He finished stretching and looked at his clothes for the day with a grin. He had decided that since he had been playing the fool throughout the academy, he might as well graduate as one too, therefore his neon orange jumpsuit was laid out in front of him, most likely to be worn for the last time. It was a shame really, even though Akira had managed to convince him that orange was NOT a good color for a ninja, it was still awesome. He gave a wistful sigh, sadly it was not to be, she had threatened to stop training him if he did not wear practical colors in the field, so he had reluctantly agreed. Shaking his head a bit he quickly got dressed and hurried to the kitchen to get breakfast. After he had eaten he put his sandals on, opened the front door, quietly, he knew better than waking Akira up after a mission, the first time he had done that… He felt a shiver make its way down his spine… She had forced him to play a game of tag, Mitarashi Anko style, which he quickly learned meant he had to run for his life while Akira threw sharp, pointy objects and even ninjutsu at him. He really did not want to meet Anko after that. He forced the memory down and gently closed the door after him, even though the silencing seals in the rooms would stop any sounds unless he knocked on the door, better safe than sorry. With the door closed he sped off towards the academy with his mask slipping into place with barely any conscious effort as he dodged the people in the streets while ignoring their glares, they were unimportant as they didn't even try to get to know him.

He soon reached the academy, and as he had left early he was the only one already there. He filled a bucket with water and carried it to his classroom and put it in a corner for later use. He knew he was going to pass, as had already showed Iruka-sensei his Mizu Bunshin no Jutsuat the level he intended to show in class, and both his Kawarimi and Henge was more than Genin material. He took his usual seat and just waited for everyone to show up. His classmates started to arrive after a while and Naruto barely registered anything that was happening, having learned to tune out everything his 'mask persona' was doing since he would just get bored otherwise. He blinked as he suddenly found him in a position that he couldn't ignore though. He was slowly falling after someone bumped into him, right towards Uchiha Sasuke, his 'rival', and was currently on a collision course for a kiss.

'Oh hell no! My first kiss will NOT be with a guy, and the class emo at that, dattebayo! Although he might actually enjoy it…' He thought as he managed to get the toes of his right foot firmly attached to the ground, he then stuck to the surface with chakra and twisted his body to miss the brooding Sasuke and instead go tumbling down the seats and collapse in a heap at the bottom. Everyone looked at him before they started laughing as he let his persona take over again, although he did catch the look he got from Shikamaru Nara, the only one that had noticed he was hiding his abilities, he had even confronted him about it once, to which Naruto had countered with 'why are you hiding the fact you're a genius?'. The shadow user had just stared at him before leaving with a sigh and mumbling about 'Troublesome blonds'. Shikamaru had started showing up at Akira's house after that and forced him to play shōgi. Naruto never managed to win, but his unpredictable tactics and ability to come up with new plans on the go had provided the genius Nara with a surprising amount of challenge, and the events had proven beneficial to both parties, as it gave Naruto some tactical knowledge and forced the Nara to learn to adapt when things took an unexpected twist, and the games had become a rather regular occurrence. Shikamaru had also become the first, and only, person from his generation to find out about the fox.

Flashback

Shikamaru was studying the blonde across the shōgi board intently. The blonde was an enigma to him, as he was hiding his true abilities during the academy and from what he had noticed from the many games of shōgi, overplaying the hyperactive idiot persona that was generally accepted as Uzumaki Naruto. Another thing that was weird was the amount of hatred that the villagers held for the boy, even his own father had warned him about being careful around him, even if he hadn't told him to stay away as he had heard a lot of other parents do. At first he had thought it was because of the blondes many pranks, but it had soon become clear that the hatred was too big and ran too deep to be because of a simple prank. So what was the reason for this hatred? It didn't make any sense. No matter how much he thought about it he couldn't come up with a valid reason a 10 year old would be the target of this much hate, and when he asked his father about it the man had tried to change the subject and never answered. so the only thing left to do?

"Naruto?" Shikamaru said. When the blonde looked up from the shōgi board to look at him he continued. "Why do the villagers hate you so much?" Naruto froze and actually seemed to stop breathing for a split second before he tried to act like it never happened.

"I don't know. I must have pranked them or something I guess." He said. Shikamaru just stared at him as if to say 'do you think I'm an idiot?'

"Don't insult me. Why do they hate you? What could you possibly have done for them to act the way they do? No matter how much I try I can't think of anything to cause this." He said while narrowing his eyes at the blonde. He would not accept a lie and he didn't feel like avoiding the subject any longer. Naruto seemed reluctant before he looked down.

"That's because you're assuming it's because something I did." He said after a while. Shikamaru blinked. He stared at Naruto for a while before putting his hands together in his 'thinking pose' and closed his eyes.

'So it's not because of Naruto's actions they act like this… Were his parents' traitors or something? No, if something like that could make them act like this the Uchiha would have been chased out after Madara…' He thought. He kept running through various scenarios in his head but always drew a blank.

'Alright this isn't working. What do I know of Naruto? He plays pranks, he's hated by almost everyone, he's a ramen freak, he hides his abilities and he got weird birthmarks, an-...' He stopped at that thought. 'Birthmarks… They look like whiskers… What did the villagers call him again? Fox brat? What was his birthday… That's right, October 10… They see him as the fox, but why? Just because of his birthday and whiskers? No, that can't be right.' His thoughts was running frantic at this point.

'Let's see… What do I know about the kyūbi… Madara used it to fight the Shodaime, who somehow managed to beat it with his Mokuton, no wait. Mokuton could only subdue the Bijū, not beat them. It was his wife that managed to beat it… And her specialty was fūinjutsu, she must have sealed the fox into something. But living beings can't be sealed into inanimate objects for long, so she must have-.' Shikamaru's eyes snapped open and locked onto Naruto. 'Naruto is born the same day the kyūbi attacked, the Yondaime died to beat it, and he specialized in fūinjutsu just like the Shodaime's wife. He must have sealed it inside of Naruto… That's why the villagers hate him, and dad warned me to be careful around him.' While he thought this he studied the whiskered blonde in front of him. Naruto was looking at him with a mix of curiosity, hope, resignation and most of all, fear. It was quite obvious that his actions would have a rather large impact on Naruto. Shikamaru sighed and lowered his eyes to the board. It seemed Naruto had found a way out of his trap and was trying to counter it with his own. He reached for one of his pieces and broke the trap as well as putting him in a position to end the game before he looked back to Naruto.

"I know you figured it out already, you had everything needed to." Naruto said after a while, a small hint of dread in his voice. Shikamaru thought about the situation for a while, the civilians hatred could be written off easily enough, but the fact that several ninjas, even his own father, was cautious of him would mean that the kyūbi could be able to break out. However, the kyūbi had also been sealed inside the Shodaime's wife without incident, and after she died it must have been sealed into someone else since it didn't reappear for several years, meaning the host must be able to suppress it. Did the former host lose control, and is that the reason they fear Naruto? He didn't know. However…

"If you were the kyūbi, me and everyone else in Konoha, would be dead already." Shikamaru said in a bored tone now that he had figured out one part of the blonde enigma. The simple answer seemed to stun Naruto, however happiness soon became apparent on his face when a grin, the same he had almost all the time in his idiot persona, except this one was truly genuine, threatened to split his face.

"Thank you, Shikamaru!" He almost yelled.

End Flashback

Soon after his impressive, if unnoticed by most, display of acrobatics Iruka had arrived together with Mizuki and had quickly shut the class up before explaining the tests, which consisted of a written test, a weapons test, taijutsu and finally the 3 basic ninjutsus. Naruto made sure to stay at a level that just barely allowed him to pass, and he didn't even have to fake it at the written exam… He never managed to stay focused on reading if he didn't have an interest in the subject. Now the only part left was ninjutsu.

"I will call you out one by one and you need to perform the 3 basic ninjutsus, the Henge, Kawarimi and Bunshin no jutsu." Iruka said before he called out names. And then after several minutes and everyone else in his class had either failed or gotten their headbands, "Uzumaki Naruto." It was finally his turn.

"Yes! I'm finally going to be a ninja, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled as he ran to stand in front of Iruka. He quickly used Kawarimi with a nearby chair, Henge'd into the Sandaime, perfect with the pipe and the orange book making Iruka blush a bit before glaring at him. Luckily the book was hidden from the rest of the class and only visible by him and Mizuki, it wouldn't do to spread rumors about the Hokage.

"Very funny Naruto. Now, you just need to make a Bunshin and you will be able to graduate." Iruka said even though he already knew what was going to happen.

"Umm… Does it have to be THE Bunshin or is any type of clone okay?" Naruto asked while scratching the back of his head a bit embarrassed.

"Any clone is fine, why do you ask?" Mizuki said, a bit suspicious. 'Why would he…? He can't be allowed to pass, he must fail for my plans, not to mention the demon doesn't deserve to be a ninja anyway.'

Naruto just grinned before running to the corner he left the bucket of water and brought it back. He put his hands in the Tiger seal and got a look of utmost concentration on his face.

"**Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!**" He yelled and the water slowly rose before morphing into a humanoid shape, slowly changing color and shape until an identical Naruto was standing next to the first. Almost everyone in the room had a look of shock on their face, the only exceptions being Shikamaru, Iruka and Shino, whose face was… Well it couldn't be seen to be honest. Iruka smiled a bit on the reaction before he played his part.

"You're able to make a solid clone? That's impressive!" He exclaimed, trying to sound surprised and proud over the achievement. "You pass!" Mizuki, seeing his carefully laid out plans rapidly evaporating before his eyes cut in.

"Are you sure? I mean, while a solid clone is very impressive the rate which it formed at was very slow, I don't want him to get killed because he wasn't able to create a clone in time." He said while trying to sound worried for Naruto. Iruka shook his head and smiled at Naruto.

"While it's true that the clone was slow to form, a solid clone is a lot more useful than the normal Bunshin no Jutsu, and could potentially save the lives of both him and his teammates, and his Jōnin-sensei will be able to help him work on the creation speed. All in all, he deserves to pass." He said before his smile faded and his expression grew serious. "However Naruto, I need to remind you that you Barely passed any of the tests, and this part is no different. Your clone needs a lot of work to be usable in combat, never forget that." He said sternly, although he himself, Naruto and Shikamaru almost laughed at that, having seen him using dozens of clones without trouble. Naruto looked down in shame.

"At least I managed to make the stupid thing…" He said a bit sadly before perking up. "But I'm a ninja now right?! Right Iruka-Sensei?! Now that I'm a ninja, I'm going to be the best Hokage ever, dattebayo!" He yelled. Iruka chuckled as he handed the boy his headband.

"I'm sure you will. Just remember what it means to be a Konoha ninja and do your best." He said with a smile that Naruto returned. Now that the graduation was over everyone left the room to show off their new headbands to their family members outside.

When Naruto exited the academy, his headband on proud display, several of the parents glared at him with hate and muttered about how something like 'him' shouldn't have been allowed to graduate. He just ignored them all, however one thing he couldn't ignore was the empty feeling he got when he saw almost everyone having someone to show their headbands to and got proud smiles and words in return. He shook his head to get rid of any negative thoughts.

'You knew this would most likely happen, keep it together, dattebayo!' He thought as he tried to think about something else.

"So you made it." A slightly distorted feminine voice said. "For a while I almost thought you had played your role a bit too well seeing you were actually looking forward to wearing that horror." She said bringing a smile to Naruto's face.

"Hey! Don't look down on orange, dattebayo!" He said as he turned and looked up, spotting a cloaked figure standing on a branch while leaning on the tree trunk. The figure straightened up and jumped down.

"Orange is fine, NEON orange, is not." She said in a deadpan voice, obvious even with the distortion. Naruto just grinned.

"That's what YOU think, Akira-nee-chan." He said cheekily, making Akira chuckle as she pulled down her hood and removed a cloth from her head that she wrapped like a scarf around her neck, revealing her gray hair and a breathing mask over her face that she soon removed.

"Cheeky brat." She said with a shake of her head, now with her normal voice. "At least you promised not to wear that when you're actually working…" She almost sighed on how hard it had been to convince Naruto just how much of a bad idea wearing neon orange actually was. She shook her head a little before looking up seeing movement in her peripheral. She waved at Iruka before greeting him.

"Hey Iruka, I guess the brat is no longer your responsibility, you must be relieved." She said with a cheeky smile as she looked at Naruto, who was as she had guessed had an angry scowl on his face while pouting, making him look adorable. Iruka laughed a bit when he saw it before shaking his head.

"A little bit yes. And the worst part is that he's like a puppy doing something bad. You know you should punish it, but he's just so cute you can't bring yourself to do it." He said trying to hide his grin, knowing just how much Naruto disliked being called cute and adorable. Naruto's scowl grew deeper.

"AAH! I'm not cute damn it! I'm awesome, dattebayo! Stop saying that I'm cute!" He yelled as he stomped his foot, however all this made was make Iruka and Akira laugh at him. He glared at them before turning and stomping of towards the gate. "Fine! I hate you both!" He said making the two adults laugh even more before they slowly got their breath back.

"Hey, Naruto." Iruka called after him, making him turn around. He saw both Iruka and Akira smiling at him. "Good job on graduating." Iruka said.

"We're proud of you brat." Akira said.

Naruto's eyes widened a bit when he heard that. Both had proud smiles on their faces and he couldn't help but smile. The empty feeling he had earlier was completely gone, he had people that cared for him now, and the fact they aren't related by blood didn't mean anything, to him, they are his family.

"Was there ever any doubt, dattebayo?! After all, I'm going to be the Hokage!" He yelled happily. Both Akira and Iruka smiled a bit more at that.

"Come on, let's get some ramen to celebrate. I'm buying." Iruka said although he almost regretted it once he saw the gleam in Naruto's eyes, this was going to be expensive.

* * *

**At Ramen Ichiraku**

* * *

"Teuchi-oji-san! Ayame-nee-san! Look! I'm a ninja now!" Naruto yelled almost before he got into the small restaurant and ran to his usual seat as Ayame smiled at him from behind the bar.

"That's great! I knew you could do it, you've worked really hard for this." She said happily.

"Congratulations! So you're here to celebrate are you?" Teuchi said as he came out from the kitchen, also with a smile on his face.

"Yeah! And Iruka-sensei is paying, dattebayo!" Naruto said as Akira and Iruka made their way inside as well. "Let's get down to business! A large serving of miso ramen with roasted pork fillet! And keep 'em coming!" He yelled, making Iruka grow pale and touch his wallet a bit nervously, obviously wondering if he would be able to afford everything. Luckily for him Naruto decided to have mercy and only ate 5 bowls. The mood in the small restaurant was very good and was spent talking amongst those present, and both Ayame and Teuchi was happy that Naruto would actually be able to show how hard he had worked the last 4 years now. When everyone was done eating they said goodbye to Teuchi and Ayame and started walking home. They talked a bit until they Iruka had to go since his apartment was in another direction.

* * *

**Back at Akira's house some time later**

* * *

After Naruto and Akira had made their way home she had told him to go into the living room and wait, and although a bit confused he had complied right away and was now trying to figure out what she wanted as he sat on the couch.

'Does she want to watch something on TV or something? But why would she need me here for that…' He thought. He pondered on what she might want with him for a short while before he heard footsteps approaching and he turned to see Akira walking up to him with a scroll in her hands. He eyed the scroll curiously before speaking.

"What's with the scroll?" He said in a curious voice as she sat down next to him and put the scroll on the table in front of the couch.

"It's your graduation present." She said making his eyes go wide. "Now that you're a Genin, sort of, it's time that I let you take the next step in our training. And it will probably help you as well." She explained. Naruto kept looking between Akira and the scroll for a while, as if to make sure that it was really for him and not a joke. Although the last 4 years had been great, 8 years of distrust and misery did leave scars. When his brain did realize it really was for him he reached and channeled chakra into the scroll. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets when the smoke cleared. There, in front of him, was a complete set of Akira's unique equipment.

The large hooded cloak in mottled green, gray and brown colors that was Akira's trademark. He quickly opened it and channeled a small amount of chakra into it to confirm that it was real, the insides covered in various seals that was the reason it was considered unique.

A set of ninja clothes in the same colors, made up of standard ANBU pants and a long armed shirt with wide sleeves along with a sort of headdress that looked like a scarf but could be pulled over to cover everything except the eyes. The clothes also had several seals that was invisible unless chakra was channeled into them.

A breathing mask with a seal allowing air to be rebreathed almost indefinitely was present as well.

But the biggest surprise was the sheathed twin daggers. They were black with blue details, the had a blade like cover over the handle to protect the fingers as well as cut through punching and a small, sharp blade at the end (Noble Premium Ophidian Dagger, Aionarmory. Google it. It refuses to be linked.). He grabbed one of them and unsheathed it, revealing blue seals on the blade. Looking inside the sheath he could see a faint glow telling him that there was another seal inside. It had become apparent when Akira had taught him fūinjutsu that he was a natural at the difficult art and he guessed that it was a summoning seal, that would summon the dagger into the sheath if he ever were to lose them. If they were anything like Akira's own that would mean they are made out of chakra conductive metal, which was very expensive.

Naruto was stunned. There was a reason Akira didn't give anyone these things. The seals made them damn near indestructible and would repair themselves unless ALL repair seals would be destroyed. And the chakra needed to create all these seals… Even though Akira had insane supplies for a non jinchūriki… She must have been working on this for almost 2 years unless she worked on it all the time. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the gift for a long time before turning his wide eyes to Akira.

"You're really giving me these?! You NEVER give anyone your things, dattebayo! You didn't even let the old man know what seals are on them!" He said in an awed voice. Akira started chuckling.

"Hey, I've been training you for almost 4 years. You're my apprentice by now if you didn't know." She said with a cheeky smile. "Now go try it on so my eyes will be spared that orange horror." Her smile turning into a grin at the end. Naruto gave her a small glare before grabbing everything and running to his room. He came back fully concealed by the cloak, the shadow provided by the hood making his eyes undiscernible. All in all, he looked a lot more like a ninja now. Akira walked around him a few times looking him over before giving her approval.

"You're looking a lot better than before. Sniff. My little brat is all grown up now." She said as she wiped an imaginary tear from her eye, making him glare at her with that adorable expression. Suddenly he blinked as he remembered something before he started smiling.

"Hey, didn't you say you would stop calling me a brat once I made Genin?" He asked, making her blink as well.

"Huh… I did say that didn't I?" She said while staring at nothing, making Naruto start grinning.

"That's right! You promised! And you keep saying how you NEVER break a promise once you make one, dattebayo!" He yelled in a happy voice, he hated being called a brat. Akira sighed and looked down at the floor.

"That's true… Oh well, I guess I got no choice." She said while Naruto looked at her expectantly. "Well then. What do you want for dinner, Naru-chan" Naruto's eyes widened in horror and Akira started grinning cheekily.

As Naruto sputtered and yelled about his new nickname Akira just laughed and started walking to the kitchen while thinking 'he's so fun to tease'.

* * *

AN: I Hope the chapter was okay, it was a bit of a filler as I said earlier since I got stuck...

The reason I had Shikamaru figure out that Naruto contain the Kyūbi is because I want someone his age to know the truth, and out of all the rookie 9 he's the one that has the biggest chance to notice he's hiding his skills and then figure out the reason. Also he's intelligent enough to see the truth... Or he would be too lazy to change how he looks at Naruto... Both are valid options... xD

Oh, about Naruto's personality and persona. His persona is the same as canon, loud, hyper active and arrogant etc etc however without the crush on Sakura, because she's a bitch, sort of. And his actual personality is the same but a bit more subdued, a lot more observant/intelligent, he knows when to be serious and replace his arrogance with confidence.

I've decided to just link you to any jutsus used instead of describing them unless it's one I came up with myself.

Since I apparently can't just link to the site I'll tell you what site I used and the jutsus used in the chapter, remove the spaces for the site (For some reason I can't link the dagger even with spaces, so you have to google it. Noble Premium Ophidan Dagger)

Jutsus can be found at: naruto . wikia . com

**Henge no Jutsu**

**Kawarimi no Jutsu**

**Bunshin no Jutsu**

**Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu**

That's all from me! I'm not quite happy with it, but it will have to do. Next chapter will see more action, and I might try to introduce Anko as well. Fū, if I don't change my mind about the pairing, will probably show up soon. I already have a plan ready for every considered pairing on how to get them to Konoha, but any romance won't take part until Shippūden since I think 12 is a bit young, and I don't want to just make them instantly fall in love. See you next time!


	7. Chapter 7

AN: I'm late again, and without an excuse other than I found a few interesting fanfics and lost track of time. This chapter is about twice as long as the normal ones though, I hope that makes it up to you.

I just noticed that the links I provided didn't work, I still can't get them to work correctly and you will have to search for the jutsus on the site I tell you about, or if you got another site that works just as well or better.

For some reason I can't link the dagger, at all, even with spaces. It's called Noble Premium Ophidan Dagger and can be seen on Aionarmory. There's a button called 3D preview so you can look at it.

Also I have not been able to decide what to do with Sasuke... So I put a poll up so you can chose 1 out of 3 options to what I'm going to do with him. I have been leaning towards killing him and every other Uchiha so the sharingan will disappear, because I think it's a boring blood line. Also it will help with my Kurama's development since we're not likely to see Naruto go jinchūriki very often and I need to give him something else to do in the story. Only problem is... I like Itachi, and while I think Sasuke is a insane bastard, mental torture have a tendency to do that to people, so I'm feeling torn.

Review Response:

BROTH3ER MENACE: It's actually quite easy to bring Fū from Taki, the problem lies in making it an acceptable explanation. I just hope mine is :P I think it is... It's either that or it's cheesy... Or me being a drama queen... Meh.

Like I said above, I had some trouble with linking the dagger :/

**I do not own Naruto**

**Removing the mask**

It had been one week since Uzumaki Naruto had graduated, and he was now sitting in a corner studying the rest of his class. He had woken up early to be the first one to arrive so he could try out Akira's gift, and so far it was working perfectly he thought with a smile. He was sitting completely unmoving as he listed what he knew about those present, and of the whole class only 8 actually stood out, and not just in the good way…

'I can pretty much count out most of the civilians… We got the clan heirs and Sakura, she might be able to pull her weight, if she starts taking being a kunoichi seriously.' He thought and almost laughed at that thought. 'Yeah, like that will happen.'

After a while Iruka showed up and quickly silenced the class before giving a speech about how being a ninja and that he was proud of them. He tuned out most of the announcements about the teams until he heard his name.

"Next, Team 7 will be Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka said but had to stop because Sakura screamed.

"HELL YES! TAKE THAT INO-PIG! TRUE LOVE CONQUERS ALL!" She screeched and pointed at Ino who head butted the desk crying anime tears along with the majority of the girls. The guys all had similar thoughts to each other.

'Oh my god! My ears! I'm Deaf!/Troublesome/Annoying.' They thought.

"BE QUIET!" Iruka yelled. When everyone had settled down again he coughed before continuing. "As I was saying, Team 7 will be Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, your Jōnin-sensei will be Hatake Kakashi" At this several people started looking around for the blonde while asking where he was. Naruto just tuned them out before he noticed Shikamaru looking at the corner he was hiding in suspiciously. Quickly making sure no one else was looking he gave his friend a small wave. Shikamaru's lips curved into a small smile before he went back to resting his head on his arms.

"Quiet! Naruto will show up eventually. Next, Team 8 will be Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino and Hyūga Hinata, your Jōnin Sensei is Yūhi Kurenai. Team 9 is still in use. Next, Team 10 will be Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chōji and Yamanaka Ino. Next, Team 11…" Having heard what he wanted Naruto tuned Iruka out and thought about his team.

'This… could be bad. Sasuke, while skilled, doesn't play well with others and Sakura is obsessed with Sasuke to the point she lets her skill and body suffer to get his attention, if she's on the same team as him she will probably pay even less attention to training.' He thought worriedly. When everyone had filed out for lunch he quickly ate his own and settled on waiting for their Jōnin-sensei. It didn't take long before his classmates started coming back and taking their seats once again. The Jōnin-sensei arrived and took their teams with them when they left, and soon only Team 7 was left. They waited… and waited… and waited some more…

"ARGH! He's late! And Naruto-baka hasn't shown up either!" Sakura screeched after 2 hours, making Naruto give an unseen cringe, damn she was loud. Sasuke just looked annoyed.

"Stop pointing out the obvious." He said in an annoyed voice. Sakura looked at him and brightened.

'Shānnarō! This means we're alone with Sasuke! This is our chance!' Inner Sakura yelled. "Hey, Sasuke-kun? Now that we're a team, would you like to go on a date with me?" Sakura asked with a hopeful smile.

"No." Sasuke said, not even bothering to look at her, causing Sakura to look down saddened. Naruto rolled his eyes at the display.

'Shouldn't she have learned by now? Sasuke never accepts a date, ever, with anyone. More importantly, where the hell is our sensei?! I'm bored!' He thought. This went on for another hour, and when their sensei did show up even Sasuke looked annoyed.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura screeched at the silver haired man that HAD to be their sensei, no one else had any reason to be here at this time. "And that idiot Naruto isn't here either!" The silver haired man cringed at the high pitch before looking around. Sure enough he could only see 2 of the 3 kids he was in charge of. Knowing who trained him he closed his eyes and tried to sense him instead, easily picking up the third chakra signature in the corner.

'He's good, but he can't fully suppress his chakra, although that's not a big surprise.' He thought with an eye smile. "Hmm… how can I say this… My first impression of you guys… You're annoying. Meet me on the roof in 5 minutes." He said and disappeared in a swirl of leafs.

* * *

**The Roof**

* * *

Kakashi was sitting on the roof waiting for his team to arrive. The first to arrive was Sasuke, Sakura following at his heels like a dog. Soon after a shadow seemed to make its way up the stairs before disappearing in a shadowed area nearby, causing him to give an eye smile.

'If they manage to pass he will be damn valuable when gathering info.' He thought. 'IF, they pass that is.'

"Ok… let's begin with some introductions." He said.

"Sensei… shouldn't we wait for Naruto first?" Sakura asked, a bit annoyed at her teammate.

"Nah, if he's not here already we can tell him later." He said while looking at the shadow Naruto was hiding in.

"Umm. What do you want to know?" She asked.

"How about… your likes, dislikes… dreams for the future, hobbies and stuff like that." He said with a shrug.

"Why don't you go first sensei? You look suspicious…" She said.

"Ohh… me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you guys about my likes or dislikes. Dreams for the future..? Hmm… Well, I have lots of hobbies…" He said in a lazy tone, earning sweat drops from two of his students, the last one having an idea of what to expect from when Dog was at his birthday parties, the hair gave him away pretty quickly.

'All we learned was his name…' Both Sakura and Sasuke thought at the same time.

"Grumpy, you're next." Kakashi said while pointing at Sasuke, getting him a glare from two people and an unseen smile from the third. Sasuke who was sitting in what he thought was a dramatic pose started talking.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are tons of things I dislike but I don't really like anything. And I don't want to use the word "dream" but… I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and… To kill a certain man" He said in a grim voice.

'Cool…' Was Sakura's thoughts at those words.

'Yeah… You should probably try to find a girl if you want to resurrect your clan…' Naruto thought with a sweat drop.

'… I thought so…' Kakashi thought, trying to figure out how to deal with the vengeful Uchiha.

"Alright, pinky, you're next." He said, dragging Sakura out of her daydream to glare at him. She fixed her clothes and took a deep breath.

"I'm Haruno Sakura. The thing I like is… well… The person I like is…" She said as she looked at Sasuke and blushed. "Umm… Should I say my dream for the future..? OH MY!" She almost screeched as she buried her face in her hands. "The things I dislike are, Naruto and Ino-pig! My hobby is…" queue staring at Sasuke while blushing.

'Why is she a kunoichi?' Kakashi thought fighting the urge to facepalm.

"Okaaay. Stalker, you're next." He said, confusing Sasuke and Sakura who started look around trying to figure out who their sensei was talking to. Naruto waited for a short while before slowly walking forward while speaking.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. My likes are ramen, training, Akira-nee-chan, Sandaime-jiji and those who can think as an individual. My dislikes are those who blindly believe what others say and those who wish to harm the ones I care about. My dream is to be Hokage so I can protect those I care about and to make Akira-nee-chan and Sandaime-jiji proud of me. My hobbies are pulling pranks and gardening." He said coming to a stop next to his teammates, while Sakura and Sasuke were staring at him since he just appeared out of nowhere and was wearing a completely different outfit.

'Hmm. At least I got someone that's serious about being a ninja.' Kakashi thought with an eye smile. Before Sakura could start screaming about where the hell Naruto had come from Kakashi started speaking again.

"Alright, tomorrow we will perform a test to see if you are worthy of becoming Genin of Konoha." He said in an airy voice.

"What? But Kakashi-sensei, we already passed the Genin exams!" Sakura said, snapping out of staring at her mysteriously appearing teammate. Kakashi chuckled before speaking.

"You didn't really think that those simple exams would be enough to be counted as a Genin did you?" He said with an amused tone. "Those exams are just to see if you have the potential to be a Genin, this one is to see if you Deserve it. This is a very difficult exam, having an almost 66% failure rate." At the last part he was looking very serious, causing Sakura to gulp and Sasuke to look slightly worried. Naruto seemed to analyze what he'd been told and trying to see if there was a hidden message, but he didn't know enough information to make a guess yet.

"Meet at training field 7 at 08:00, and you shouldn't eat breakfast, you'll just throw up." Kakashi said with a wave and an eye smile before disappearing in a swirl of leaves. At that the three Genin split up to do their own preparations for tomorrow with various levels of nervousness.

* * *

**Next day, training field 7**

* * *

Naruto was once again hiding in the shadows. He had eaten breakfast since he knew that throwing up is better than being weak from hunger. He was now observing his teammates that looked both hungry and tired, Sakura more so than Sasuke, most likely from being on a diet. He was keeping quiet while observing how his teammates interact with each other. Well, Sakura's attempt on getting Sasuke to paying attention to her. He shook his head slowly.

'This won't be easy… If the test requires teamwork it will be almost impossible.' He thought and slowly shifted into a better position to wait when his team wasn't looking, he would probably have to wait for his teacher today again.

09:00, still no sign of Kakashi.

10:00, no sign of Kakashi and Sakura was starting to really get annoyed.

11:00 on the dot. "Hey guys. Good Morning!" Kakashi said when he arrived in a swirl of leaves.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura screeched while Sasuke just looked annoyed. "And Naruto is late as well!" she continued ranting.

"No I'm not. I was just resting to save my strength for the test Sakura-san." Naruto said as he stood up from where he was hiding, making his teammates spin around and stare at him with wide eyes.

"How do you keep doing that?! Where did you come from?!" Sakura yelled at him. Naruto just looked at her, only his eyes visible.

"I've been here from the start. And how I'm doing it? I'm a ninja, it's not that hard." He said slowly, as if explaining things to a child. Before Sakura could tear into her teammate Kakashi put an alarm clock on a tree stump nearby and held up two bells.

"Your mission is to get a bell from me. You have until noon. Those who cannot get a bell will not get any lunch, if you don't get a bell I will tie you to a log and eat your lunch in front of you, and will be sent back to the academy." He said before tilting his head forward a bit shadowing his eyes. "And since there are only two bells, one of you is guaranteed to fail." He said in a serious tone. Sasuke smirked, certain that if anyone would pass it would be him. Sakura looked unsure of herself, and Naruto, he seemed excited.

"You have 55 minutes. Start!" Kakashi yelled and his students all ran and hid.

With Sakura

Sakura was hiding under a bush and was nearly panicking.

'How am I supposed to get a bell from a Jōnin?! It's impossible! Sasuke-kun is sure to pass and I'll be left behind!' She shouted in her head.

With Sasuke

Sasuke had hidden himself amongst the branches of a tree and was now overlooking the clearing where Kakashi was standing. He wasn't worried, he was a better ninja than both Naruto and Sakura combined, although Naruto had been displaying an unknown ability of stealth lately.

'It doesn't matter. I'll beat this guy and take a bell, and then I will be one step closer to HIM.' He thought hatefully.

With Naruto

Naruto was squatting in the shadow of a tree, with his forearms on his knees under the cloak and was following one of Akira's many advices. He was trying to make the most of the information available to him.

'Let's see… Something is strange with this exam… Even though I and Sasuke are at a higher level than an academy student should be when they graduate, we don't stand a chance against a Jōnin… If he's even half as strong as Akira he'll wipe the floor with us. So there must be another objective.' He thought. He went over everything he had been told, both today, yesterday and what Iruka had told them about being a ninja. After a while it clicked. 'Worthy of being KONOHA Genin… Konoha values teamwork over everything else. It's a teamwork exercise… Son of a… how am I supposed to convince Sasuke to work together?!' He almost shouted in his head. Sasuke was the key, if he managed to convince Sasuke to work together with him Sakura would no doubt follow.

'Right... First thing first, finding Sasuke…' He thought before making some hand seals. "**Karasu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**" He whispered and his cloak bulged before a dozen black shapes burst out. The shapes, which turned out to be ravens, flew off scanning the forest. It didn't take long before a memory of Sasuke hiding in a tree popped up and Naruto started running quietly.

With Kakashi

Kakashi was standing in the middle of a clearing, completely relaxed as he tried to find his Genin.

'I can find Sakura fairly easy, her hair and dress doesn't really mesh with the brush she's lying in. She should probably worry more about camouflage than looking pretty… Sasuke… There he is, not bad, but could be better… and Naruto… I can't find him.' He thought before trying to sense his chakra, and because of his enormous reserves it wasn't that hard even though he wasn't a sensor. 'He's on the move.' He thought a bit surprised. It was one thing that he couldn't find him when he wasn't moving because of the cloak, but when he was moving? That was impressive. 'You taught him well, Akira… Sensei would have been proud of him' He thought with a small smile. 'He seems to heading towards Sasuke… Did he figure it out? It shouldn't have been that easy…'

Looking around one last time he reached into his weapons pouch and pulled out…

With Sasuke

Sasuke tensed up when Kakashi reached into his pouch.

'What is he going to use?' He thought 'Is he going to use shuriken to flush us out?' He focused on the hand in the pouch as it pulled out… a book? He had to blink at that. 'Did he just..? Are you serious? He's underestimating me!' He thought angrily. Just as he was about to reach for some shuriken to take advantage of what he thought was a lowered guard something grabbed his hand. He quickly whipped his head around while reaching for a kunai with his other hand and came eye to eye with Naruto.

"That's a bad idea, the man is a Jōnin for a reason." Naruto whispered.

"Dobe… What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked in a low voice with a scowl. Naruto just rolled his eyes at the nickname.

"I'm here because I think I've figured out the test. The bells are just a distraction." Naruto answered still whispering. This got Sasukes' attention, although he was a bit skeptical to the class clown figuring out any hidden meaning to the test. "No Genin, no matter how good, can beat a Jōnin. If they were on that level they would have graduated early and would already have been promoted. They taught us in the academy that Konoha values teamwork above all else, and yesterday he said if we were worthy of being KONOHA Genin. How many teams with only 2 Genin are there? None. That only happens in case of apprenticeships, and then it's usually only one student." He continued still whispering.

Sasuke actually had to stop and think on that. It was true, a Genin wouldn't stand a chance against a Jōnin, even if he was holding back he would still kick their asses. And since Naruto could sneak up on him he had at least some skill. But…

"What happens if we get the bells and you're wrong?" He asked suspiciously. Naruto just shrugged.

"Then I will give my bell to the other who didn't get one. You got to admit, you and me probably wouldn't mix very well in a team if there was an alternative." He said without a care. "I'm better than I showed at the solid clones so I can easily pass next time if that happens. All that really happens is that I get another year to learn new skills from Akira-nee-chan." Seeing how Sasuke was still being suspicious he rolled his eyes. "Sasuke, I promise not to steal your bell. And you know I NEVER break a promise." He said

And Sasuke did know that. Whenever Naruto gave an outright Promise, he would follow it. No matter what, so in that case… The only problem would be…

"Sakura… If it's a test about teamwork, how are we supposed to work with Sakura?" He asked as he narrowed his eyes while looking at the bush where her red dress was clearly visible from this angle. "Her taijutsu is horrible, her accuracy is average at best, and she doesn't have anything other than the 3 basic jutsus." In his mind, Sakura would be useless. Naruto was an unknown, he was clearly better than what he showed in the academy, and even back in the academy his stamina and unpredictability was a great advantage, he could be a useful distraction at least. "Both of us would have to hold back for her to be able to keep up, and against a Jōnin we can't do that."

"However she is quite good at making traps. I'll give her a message to create as many traps as she can in the area she's in and we can try to drive sensei there." Naruto said, having already thought about that. Sasuke seemed to give it some thought before nodding. They still had over 40 minutes left, if it didn't work he had plenty of time to try again.

"Alright, let's do it. Just hope you're right about this, dobe. If I fail because of you…" He said while fixing Naruto with a glare. Naruto rolled his eyes at this gesture.

"Right, well I'll go inform Sakura. I'll be the distraction with my clones, but you'll have to back me up pretty quickly." He said as he started to turn around. "Oh, I almost forgot, here." He suddenly said before handing Sasuke a round, dark brown pill, about the size of a marble to Sasuke. "That's a soldier pill. It will refill your chakra and stamina. Since you didn't eat you will probably tire quickly and that will help." With that he jumped down, landing on the ground without a sound before running towards Sakura.

Sasuke watched him leave before turning to focus on Kakashi, who was still reading his damn book.

With Sakura

Sakura was still panicking about what to do when she felt someone put a hand on her shoulder. She was just about to scream when another hand was put over her mouth. Before she had time to start struggling a voice whispered in her ear.

"Relax! It's just me, Naruto!" Naruto whispered in an urgent tone. He had no doubt Kakashi would exploit any mistakes, and suddenly shouting would no doubt be counted as a large mistake. "Sasuke and I think the test might be about teamwork so we're going to try and fight Kakashi-sensei together. We want you to create as many traps as you can here and we'll try to force him here. Do you understand?" He didn't let go until he felt her nod. "Good. Here, if you get low on chakra or run out of steam, eat this." He said and handed her a soldier pill. As Sakura turned around to ask what that was all about, Naruto was already gone. She hesitated for a few seconds before deciding to do as he said and prepared her trap making tools.

With Kakashi

'Hmm. It seems like Naruto really did figure it out. Impressive, but, unless they can pull something off it doesn't matter if they know the purpose of this test.' Kakashi thought while reading his porn. He could sense Naruto making his way to the river on the opposite side from the forest, but he hadn't seen him once. 'I wonder what he's planning…'

He didn't have to wait long to get his answer, as suddenly a dozen Naruto's suddenly started rising from the water. They split up in groups of three before rushing forward. Once the clones were halfway there they tossed several shurikens before drawing their special daggers and holding them in a reverse grip. Kakashi easily avoided all the shurikens and waited for the clones to make it into close combat. Nine clones stayed behind while three rushed in so they would still have room to fight.

'**Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu**… He should know they aren't fast enough to be a challenge… a distraction maybe?' He thought as dispatched the first group with ease. As soon as the last clone died the next group rushed in to meet the same fate, followed by the next group, Kakashi had to suppress a sigh as when he finished the last clone the last group rushed in as well.

'I guess I gave him too much credit, it seems he's just going to swarm me with clones and pray he gets lucky.' He thought as he prepared to punch one of the clones that were getting to close. However, right before his fist would smash the clone in the face it suddenly spun to the right and slashed at his extended arm. 'What the?!' Kakashi thought as only his instincts and superior speed saved him from losing said arm. The clone wasn't finished though as it tried to use the second dagger to slash at his chest. He was forced to take a step back to avoid getting cut, but the clone changed the slash into a stab forcing him to make some distance between himself and the clone, only for the clone that had made its way behind him to stab in him the back. Kakashi's eyes widened, before a log appeared in his place in a puff of smoke. The real Kakashi appeared a short distance away and was currently putting his book away. As he tried to figure out was going on, he suddenly noticed three puddles close to the river which told him what had happened.

"Hmm… Well done, Naruto. That was a good trick. Having shadow clones swap out with water clones to confuse me. Well, it won't be enough, but it was good anyway." Kakashi said with an eye smile. The clones chuckled.

"You really are a Jōnin, figuring it out that quickly." One of them said. "Guess we'll have to step it up a bit, right guys?" A second one said. "I'll cover you, go kick his ass!" The last clone said as his daggers disappeared in a puff of smoke and he started pulling shurikens from somewhere under his cloak. As if on a mental command the clones all acted on the same time. The one using shuriken kept throwing the deadly metal stars whenever there was an opening, the clones using daggers fought in tandem with one attacking and one defending, and if that wasn't enough the real Naruto replaced any clone he dispelled almost instantly. The clones engaged Kakashi in a deadly dance, using their superior reaction speed to counter the Jōnin's experience and avoid any counters.

'Impressive… They can fight me when I'm fighting on the level of mid Chūnin.' Kakashi thought as he tried to attack a clone, just for the other to swipe at him and force him back. 'Damn, screw teamwork, he got his own team that he can create at any time… Guess I should step it up a little.' The clones never knew what happened, one moment they were pushing Kakashi to his limit, before he suddenly relaxed and started completely dominating them. They were forced to focus entirely on defending and still just barely managed to avoid being dispelled.

'Damn, I wanted to land a solid hit before he started trying harder.' Naruto thought and created two more clones, making it a 4v1. Even with their numerical advantage they still couldn't hit Kakashi. When Kakashi managed to dispel the ranged support clone Naruto scowled. At this rate they wouldn't even be able to create an opening for Sasuke, and most of his jutsus were stealth oriented and would hinder his teammates as well. Trying desperately to figure out how to catch the man off guard he suddenly remembered the remaining ravens he sent out to search for Sasuke. Smirking he created a clone and dispelled it to give them a command.

'He just increased the number of clones… Is he out of tricks?' Kakashi thought as he fought the clones while keeping an eye out for his Genin. Then he saw something black flying at high speed straight towards his head. He quickly ducked to see a raven flying past him, barely missing him. Then he noticed the sun glinting of something trailing the bird. 'Ninja wire?' He thought as he noticed ten additional birds circling him as well. The birds flew around him a few times and he found himself bound in the thin wires, dispelling the clones around him in the process.

'An opening!' Sasuke thought and quickly threw a large number of shuriken at the restrained Kakashi. They hit him in the side of the head and neck, before he disappeared, leaving a log in his place as the real one appeared a small distance away.

"Just like last time, not bad, but not enough." He said with an eye smile at Naruto and Sasuke that had appeared between Kakashi and the river. Naruto chuckled.

"Hey Sasuke, got a light?" Naruto asked his teammate and put his hands in a seal. Sasuke smirked and started doing his own hand seals as well. Kakashi looked stunned.

'Yeah, this is bad.' He thought.

"**Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu**." Sasuke shouted and spit a huge fireball at Kakashi.

"**Fūton: Daitoppa**." Naruto shouted shortly after, exhaling a powerful gust of wind, increasing the speed, size and power of the fireball.

'Oh shit.' Was all Kakashi could think about the incoming inferno.

**KABOOM!**

The fireball impacted the ground where Kakashi was standing and exploded, forcing the Genin to cover their eyes from the heat.

"Did we get him?" Sasuke asked once the flames had calmed down and he could look again, trying to find any trace of their sensei. Naruto was also looking around for the same reason.

"I doubt it… The question is where he went…" Naruto said. Suddenly his eyes widened in realization as he heard something and he looked at the ground. "Below!" He pushed Sasuke back and tried to jump away. From the ground where Naruto had just been standing Kakashi emerged and made a grab for Naruto. He caught him but he was too far away from the hole to pull him underground and settled with subduing the blonde in a kneeling position with his right arm behind his back as Sasuke created some distance to figure out what action to take.

"Now now, aren't you two a bit young to be playing with fire like that?" Kakashi asked with an eye smile. "I'm curious to see what you will come up with next though." These words caused the subdued blonde to chuckle.

"Careful what you wish for, dattebayo." Naruto said with an eye smile of his own, making Kakashi's heart swell with pride. "The mask isn't just for show you know." Kakashi's eyes widened again and darted to the blonde's free hand. In it was a blue smoke bomb, which he started throwing into the ground.

"I think I'm starting to hate you now." Kakashi deadpanned before it touched the ground and they were engulfed in a blue smoke cloud. Kakashi soon jumped out of the cloud with his hand clasped over his mouth and retreated to the edge of the forest. He was soon forced to retreat even further as Sasuke launched a steady barrage of shuriken as soon as he touched the ground.

'They are actually doing a good job… But I have yet to see Sakura do anything.' Kakashi thought as he landed on a branch.

**Shnikt**

'Me and my big mouth' He thought with a sigh when he heard a wire being cut and was forced to dodge a barrage of kunai, bringing him further and further into the forest. This dance continued a few times before he found himself in midair, having just a particularly large amount of kunai and was now staring at a huge log on a collision course with his face. Flipping his body in an incredible acrobatic display, he put his foot on the log and twisted his body so the log barely missed him. When he touched the ground he noticed a shocked and scared Sakura, obviously having run out of traps by now. When he started to walk towards her, a loud ringing sounded across the training field. They hadn't gotten a bell, and now they were out of time.

"Hmm… I guess I don't got time to play with you this time Sakura." Kakashi said in a lazy manner while looking in the direction of the sound. "Oh well. Go and group up with your team." He said while taking out his book again. Sakura looked relieved and terrified at the same time, she might lose her chance to be a team with Sasuke.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura was now standing close to a huge square boulder, polished until it looked like a mirror, with a large amount of names carved into it, waiting for Kakashi, who was reading his book and seemed oblivious to the world, to give his judgment about the team. Naruto looked impassive, with the level of skill Kakashi had shown it was clear that nothing he could do would get him a bell unless Kakashi let him, even if he fought with his preferred tactics, so there was nothing he could have done differently. Sasuke looked stoic, although you could tell he was annoyed, if he didn't pass because he followed Naruto's advice, he would be pissed at the blonde. Sakura was terrified since she could lose her chance at being on a team with Sasuke. So now they were waiting… and waiting… and waiting… finally Sakura couldn't take it anymore.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI! DID WE PASS OR NOT?!" She yelled while her eye twitched. The outburst caused Kakashi to blink a few times before looking up from his book to stare at them.

"Oh… I forgot you were here…" He said after a while in a deadpanned voice, making the kids face fault. They looked at him with twitching eye brows, making him eye smile again. "Now now, calm down. Genin needs to keep their calm after all." He said making them glare at him before Naruto blinked.

"Wait, does that mean we pass?" He asked in an excited voice. Kakashi chuckled before nodding. All three of the newly made Genin, even Sasuke, looked excited and happy that they had made it.

"Hell yeah! I knew we could do it, dattebayo!" Naruto said in an excited voice while Sakura was smiling and looking at Sasuke with a small blush.

'Shānnarō! Ino-pig won't stand a chance now! Sasuke will be ours!' Inner Sakura screamed.

Sasuke let out a 'Hn' and looked smug.

Kakashi let them celebrate for a while before suddenly looking serious.

"I'm glad you're happy… but this job isn't a walk in the park." He said in a grave voice, instantly shutting his team up. He looked at the polished stone nearby. "This is the Memorial Stone. On it, all the names of Konoha's fallen heroes are inscribed." He looked back at his team. "My team, my sensei, my family and a lot of my friend's names are on it." He said looking tired. Sakura was looking scared as she stared at the names, there were so many. Naruto was looking at the stone with a mourning respect. Sasuke looked unfazed, but he was thinking about how his sensei also had lost a lot of people in his life.

"Those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash… But you know what? Those who don't take care of their comrades… are lower than trash." Kakashi said staring at nothing while looking regretful. "It took one of my teammates to give their life to save mine for me to learn that." He fixed his team with a firm gaze. "Don't make my mistake…"

* * *

**Akira's House**

* * *

Naruto sat down on the couch with a heavy sigh and turned on the TV. He had passed his Genin exam, although he was certain it wasn't by much. There wasn't really anything he could do, his role on a team would be information gathering and assassination, and his skills just weren't focused around teamwork unless his team had enough knowledge about them. He was just as likely to be killed by friendly fire as by an enemy if he rushed in carelessly.

'And Akira isn't even home yet so I can tell her I passed.' He thought with a pout. Just as he thought that the door opened causing him to blink. 'Speak of the devil…' Sure enough, stepping in through the door was Akira, fully geared for a mission.

"I'm home." She said with a groan as she stretched. Naruto stood up and walked into the hall.

"Welcome back. I thought you said you'd be home yesterday though?" He said with a small pout causing her to chuckle when she saw it.

"Meh, we got delayed on our way back, nothing big." She said with a shrug.

Flashback

Akira was jumping through the trees together with a kunoichi with tied up violet hair wearing a fishnet body suit with a dark orange mini-skirt and a tan trench coat. The kunoichi was Mitarashi Anko, the Snake Mistress of Konoha. Akira was keeping her attention split between the trees and Anko who was clutching her neck in obvious pain. They were coming back from a mission to exterminate a bunch of bandits being trained by a missing-nin. Everything had gone perfectly, except that the base of the bandits seemed to have been an old lab used by Orochimaru, and Anko's curse seal had been acting weird ever since. Casting another glance at her pained companion Akira spoke up.

"We should stop and rest." She said. "We're not in a hurry and you're not fit to travel at the moment." Anko cast a glare in her direction.

"I'm fine! I just want to go home, eat as much dango I can and then drink before passing out on my bed." She snapped before speeding up. Shortly afterwards the pain from the seal spiked to a much higher level, causing her to slip of the branch she was putting her foot on and fall towards the ground. 'Shit, this is gonna hurt!' She thought as she prepared herself for hitting the ground. Before she could touch the ground Akira caught her and stuck to a tree.

"Right, we're stopping to rest." She said. "That's an order." She growled dangerously when Anko opened her mouth to protest. Anko grit her teeth before nodding, clearly unhappy about the situation. Slinging one of Anko's arms over her shoulder Akira changed direction towards a large cliff. When they reached it she gently put Anko on the ground before making hand seals and slamming her palms on the cliff.

"**Doton: Iwa no Hinansho no Jutsu**." She said. The cliff started shaking before a 2 by 2 meter square of the cliff swung inwards, revealing a huge cave with smooth walls. As she looked back at Anko she noticed that she seemed to be unconscious, the stress and pain from the seal proving to be too much for her in the long run. Shaking her head slightly Akira bent down and put one arm under Anko's knees and one behind her back and picked her up before carrying her inside. Propping Anko up against a wall she placed several seals that started glowing, lighting the cave as well as providing it with air before she pushed the "door" closed, seemingly melding together with the rest of the wall. She removed her cloak and unwound her headdress and sealed the breathing mask into her arm. Looking back at Anko who was still twitching and grimacing in pain even while unconscious she frowned.

'Why the hell haven't they sealed that thing yet? There's no reason she should have to be in this much pain.' She thought as she knelt next to her, moving her trench coat to be able to get a better look on the seal. The seal seemed to… ripple, every once in a while, almost as if it was made by paint in water and someone was blowing on the surface. She gave an annoyed sigh as she stood up again.

'Well that explains that. The seal is unstable, any normal counter seal would be broken down in days, and it would be painful as hell.' She thought as she made eleven shadow clones and handing them a scroll. She then took out a canteen with water and slowly made Anko drink it, careful not to make her swallow wrong. She then wet a towel and tried to cool her down from the fever, most likely caused by the seal as she waited. She looked back at the clones, as they drew a large seal array on the floor. She sighed and turned her attention back to Anko, trying to ease some of her discomfort. When the array was complete she placed Anko in the middle and removed her clothes from her upper body before she drew several complex seals until it looked like Anko had a full body tattoo. She then stood up and carefully inspected both the arrays on Anko's body as well as the floor, not wanting there to be a single mistake. When she was satisfied she went back to the middle and took on last look around. The seal array was arranged in three layers, the inner layer containing two circles with the kanjis for Light and Darkness. The middle layer had four circles in the four cardinal directions, North, East, South and west. The outer layer had five circles for the five elements, Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth and Water. Akira took a deep breath before making several hand seals.

"**Fūinjutsu: Heikō no Hogo-sha!**" She said and held her hands over Anko's curse seal. Anko's brow furrowed and her jaw clenched in pain as the seal array on the floor and her body started moving towards her curse seal. Once the process was complete Akira lowered her hands and drew several deep shuddering breaths before she studied the seal. The three tomoes were now surrounded by three concentric circles made up out of a complex pattern of seals. There were small circles inside the circles (Is it just me or does that sound weird?) having the same kanjis as the large array from before. The curse seal seemed to flare up and tried to push out of the seals suppressing it, but the kanjis seemed to light up before the suppressing seals seemed to change slightly, forcing the curse seal back into its original state. Still trying to catch her breath, Akira redressed Anko and unsealed a sleeping bag and tried to get her into it. Since Anko was still unconscious it was quite difficult but she managed in the end. Once it was done she looked at Anko, she was no longer in pain and looked… at ease, peaceful… and something almost seemed to compel her to keep looking. Raising her hand to wipe a tear away, no doubt from the pain of the sealing, only one thought came to mind.

'She's really beautiful…' She thought when she looked at the sleeping Anko. Sure, she was ALWAYS sexy, but something about her expression right now… Shaking her head with a sigh Akira stood up and walked a short distance away before unsealing her own sleeping bag and dimmed the lighting with a handseal. The seal she had used took up an insane amount of chakra and she was feeling the drain, even with her larger than average reserves. She lay down and closed her eyes and slowly drifted off into blissful unconsciousness.

* * *

Anko started stirring, stretching her legs as her eyes fluttered open. She was on guard since she didn't recognize her surroundings, but once she spotted Akira sleeping on the floor she remembered that they had stopped to rest. She frowned at the memory, as she had wanted to continue, but then again, seeing how she must have passed out at some point it was probably a good idea to stop. Sighing she stood up and stretched her body before unsealing a canteen of water and drinking greedily with a thoughtful look on her face.

'How long was I out? When the attacks get that bad it usually lasts a long time… Was I unconscious the whole time?' She thought. Usually she was never that lucky, as the pain would wake her up even if she somehow managed to sleep or fell unconscious. She absentmindedly touched the seal, and suddenly froze. The seal was warm to the touch, meaning that it was still acting up, so why wasn't she in mind numbing pain right now? Quickly pulling out a kunai she held it up and used as a mirror and her eyes widened at the sight. She saw the suppression seal and stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds before she felt the panic rising.

'Shit! Please let this be a dream!' She thought frantically as the seal reacted to the fear she was feeling and started turning a molten red. She prepared herself for what she knew what was coming with a feeling of hopelessness. The curse seal would ripple and the suppression seal would start breaking down causing a huge amount of pain. She found herself unable to tear her eyes away from the seals, even though holding a kunai would be a bad idea when the pain started.

The seal rippled

The kanjis on the suppression seal glowed

Anko grit her teeth

The suppression seal changed slightly

The curse seal receded and turned black again

The kanjis stopped glowing

Anko felt her jaw drop. There was no pain, and nothing pointing to the suppression seal breaking down, but that was impossible! Not even Jiraiya had managed to seal it! The hand holding the water canteen fell limply to her side and the canteen crashed into the ground. Akira jolted awake from the sound and reached for her daggers, however calmed down once she noticed Anko studying her seal.

"How do you feel?" She asked, startling Anko and making her head turn in her direction so fast she must have gotten whiplash. "Do you feel any pain?" she said as she stood up from her sleeping bag and cracked her back. Anko just looked between her and the kunai to look at the suppression seal.

"How?" She asked in a shaky voice. This was impossible, she had given up years ago on the seal, choosing to just grin and bear it when the seal acted up. Akira looked at her for a while before answering.

"It's an adapting seal." She said. "Even amongst fūinjutsu users there are very few people who know how to use them, and they are still rarely used even amongst those who know them since they require a lot more chakra and needs to be much more complicated to get the same result as a static seal." She explained while Anko still tried to wrap her head around the concept. "Their only real purpose is to deal with unstable seals, and since few people ever survive having an unstable seal placed on them… you get the picture." She continued as she stretched with a satisfied groan. She looked at Anko, who still looking a bit shocked that her seal actually could be suppressed.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm ready to go home." Akira said, unsealing her cloak and breathing mask before sealing the sleeping bags, removing the tags proving the light and opening the "door" as she stepped outside she turned and looked inside. "So, are you coming or not?" She said as she raised an eyebrow while thinking 'I wonder if I broke her or something…' slightly amused with the stunned look on Anko's face. Her words seemed to snap Anko out of her thoughts, and she quickly picked up her canteen and exited the cave. Akira made some hand seals and put her palms on the cliff again causing it to shake. The cave shrunk until it wasn't even there anymore once the door slammed shut.

"Now let's go, I want a bath." Akira said as she turned and started walking towards the trees. Anko took one last look at the seal before smiling.

"Hey, Akira." She said making her turn around to look at her curiously. She quickly walked up and stood on her toes to plant a kiss on the taller woman's mouth and pulled back with a grin. She was thoroughly enjoying the surprised and slightly dazed look on Akira's face. "Thanks!" She said in husky voice before taking to the trees while laughing. Now it was Akira's turn to look stunned. Did she just?

"Oh that sneaky little...!" She said as she jumped up into a tree and started jumping towards Konoha. She touched her lips lightly. "The kiss felt really nice though…" She mumbled to herself.

End Flashback

"How did things go with the team Naru-chan?" Akira asked teasingly, enjoying the twitching eyebrow at the nickname. He glared at her before answering proudly.

"What do you think, dattebayo?! It's me we're talking about!" Naruto boasted. Akira just rolled her eyes.

"I guess congratulations are in order then. So, who did you get on your team and who did you get as your Jōnin-sensei?" She asked curiously. He sighed and looked a bit down.

"I can't say I got lucky… I got Sasuke and Sakura on my team… Our Jōnin-sensei is Hatake Kakashi, he's Dog if you don't remember." He said making Akira raise an eyebrow.

"You actually passed Kakashi's test? Wow. You're the first team he has allowed to pass, ever, that's actually a bit impressive." She said honestly. "Well, I got to warn you, he's Always At Least 2 hours late, unless it is a very important or for a mission. Sometimes it's longer than that, but the minimum is 2 hours. So always take something with you so you won't get bored waiting for him." She said as she walked towards the hot spring. "Now I'm going to take a bath. So, congratulations on making Genin! And leave me alone so I can relax!" She called back making Naruto shake his head before looking back at the TV. He couldn't keep the grin of his face when he thought about all the places he would see now that he was an official ninja.

* * *

AN: Ah, some actual fighting! Although it pretty much sucks since my Naruto is stealth oriented... And it's hard to be stealthy in a teamwork exercise... Oh well!

If you think Sasuke accepted working together a bit too quickly, remember that because of the Sandaime's actions he's not quite as broken this time around.

Kakashi started fighting at mid Chūnin and stopped at high Chūnin. He never went all out, because that just wouldn't be fair.

As for Naruto and Sasuke's strength, Naruto is High Genin, while Sasuke is Mid Genin. Sakura is an Academy Student, pretty much. Did I mention I didn't like her very much in part 1? No?

I've always wondered why no one ever thought about sealing Anko's curse seal, is it because she doesn't trust people to mess around with it? Is there a time limit? Or did she just want to show that she could hold it back without a counter seal? I mean really, if she can do it without a seal, there would probably never be any problems if she did receive one. Only Kishimoto knows, and I doubt he will tell us. So in my story, it's because it was from the first batch and wasn't stable.

Oh, and Anko was just messing with Akira with the kiss, mostly at least. It will be some time before they become a real couple.

I will introduce Fū sometime after the Chūnin exams.

The jutsus can be found on naruto . wikia . com

**Jutsu List:**

******Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu** - Water Clone

**Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu **- Fire Release: Great Fireball

******Fūton:** **Daitoppa **- Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

******My own jutsus:**

**************Karasu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu ** - Raven Shadow Clone Technique. Creates a shadow clone in the shape of a raven. Unlike normal shadow clones these cannot use jutsus but still cost as much chakra as a normal clone. The can be used for scouting or as a distraction, they can also attack although it is not their main function.

**********Doton: Iwa no Hinansho no Jutsu ** - Earth Release: Rock Shelter. Hollows out a solid rock to create a shelter that when closed is impossible to find unless you know where it is. The size of the shelter varies depending on how much chakra is used.

**************Fūinjutsu: Heikō no Hogo-sha ** - Sealing Technique: Guardian of Equilibrium. It's an advanced seal used to contain unstable seals by constantly changing to maintain a balance between the original seal and the counter seal. The seal is very chakra draining and like all seals must be done with utmost precision to avoid unwanted results.


End file.
